Reveal Your True Eyes
by Zeraphic Triomis
Summary: A harmless trip inside a cave somehow leads Yuffie, Nanaki, and everyone else straight to the Lifestream! What adventures await them? Will there be a sweet reunion with their old friends?... or will it be bitter? Sequelish
1. Somewhere Deep Within

A/N: Ah! The long awaited "sequel" has finally arrived! This YuffiexNanaki story will be different from the others. It won't exactly concentrate on romance. I wanted to try something different. But… I might stick a few lovey lovey scenes later. (smile) Hope you enjoy!

Disclaimer: FF7 and all it's characters, places yadda yadda etc etc doesn't belong to me. HOWEVER! Only the cave does. Oooo…

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter One

Somewhere Deep Within  
_"Wow… great going, genius." -Yuffie_

What was going on? One minute my tail was there… and the next it vanished. And then I turned into my original form. I was so shocked. I stared down at my red paws, making sure it was actually for real. I shifted my body around and stared at my brightly lit tail. Everything was real. But… how did I return to my regular body? Whenever I changed, I would feel this incredible pain flowing throughout my body. But this time… nothing. I felt nothing at all. It was like I found some way to prevent the pain from returning. Was it because of what happened before in Wutai? I shook my head around. Everything was confusing.

And now, there was an even bigger problem. Not only have I changed into my beast form… but it seemed that Yuffie had changed into it as well. The color of her fur was brown with a bit of dark green in it, she was slightly smaller than I was, and her headband was slanted over her right eye.

I blinked in shock as her small brown eyes sadly looked up into mine. Her whimpering noises made me back up against the wall of the Highwind.

"Y…Yuffie!" I finally said.

Her small paws gently scratched against my side. "NANAKI! WHAT HAPPENED! WHY DO I LOOK LIKE THIS!… WHY DO _YOU_ LOOK LIKE THAT?"

"I-I don't know! I'm just as confused as you are!"

"What if the others find out!" Yuffie squealed. She bumped her green lit tail to the side of the Highwind.

"Why not? This is serious! They might know how to help us!"

"But… But look at me! I look like… like…"

I made a face. "…me?"

"YES!"

I sighed at that. "Now's not the time to joke around. Come on, let's tell Cl-"

Yuffie slammed her tail hard on the ground at that. "NO! C'mon! You're smart! Think! This is so sudden… I'll be so embarrassed!"

"But-"

She made a sad face at that.

I groaned to myself and plopped my bottom back on the ground. The _best_ option was to tell someone about this… but I guess we could think about it for a while. I knew how Yuffie felt. When I suddenly changed into a human, I was too embarrassed to show myself to anyone. But, thanks to her, I felt comfortable with my new body. Perhaps I will teach her her own lesson later or something.

But, putting that aside for a second… I had to think about our situation. Before I changed… there was a bright light. I didn't feel anything weird while that happened… in fact, I don't really recall anything when that happened. Only… I felt something different inside. That bright light… it must be some kind of clue.

"Nnnnn… did you figure it out yet?" Yuffie whined, rocking back and forth on her tail.

I grunted. "Before you changed into… eh… me… what happened? Or… what were you doing?"

"Well… I was outside saying goodbye to my Wutai. After that, I picked up my necklace to admire it. Then… I think I stared into the bright sun or something and the next thing I knew… I was… THIS!"

I tapped my paw on the ground. "I don't think there was a bright sun. Because I was engulfed in a bright light as well."

Yuffie gasped. "Do you think… it was our necklaces' doings!"

"Our necklaces'?"

She nodded. "Yeah! My father said that our necklaces' have an unknown power deep within."

I lifted my head. I remembered that. But, what did this have to do with our courage and determination? Were we determined to be with each other and that we could take in whatever entered our path? I rubbed my head. I still didn't understand… but it somehow made little sense.

"So… our necklaces' have the power to change our forms whenever we want?" Yuffie said, knawing at her necklaces' chain.

I shrugged. "I guess… but… how do we change back?"

"Eh…"

We both turned to the door. Someone was coming. I turned to Yuffie who was now under a panic attack. I looked around then to my necklace. I rubbed the chain back and forth.

"We want to change our forms!"

"Come ON! I'm not ready to show everyone how I look!" Yuffie scratched the chain harder. "Work, work, work, WORK!"

"Yuffie! Calm down! Panicking won't help in this situation!"

"B-But! I-I don't wanna! EH! EEE!"

A soft knock was heard from behind the door.

"Yo, Red!" Cid happily said. "What's all the commotion in there? Was that Yuffie? Are you two making out?"

I turned red at that. "NO! I'm… eh…" I ran up to Yuffie and pushed her underneath the bed. She grunted at that. "I'm… by myself."

"Hooo?"

The door opened, revealing a rather tired-looking Cid. He crossed his arms on his chest and lifted an eyebrow.

I smiled nervously. "Uh… is there something you want to talk about?"

"Shyeah, we're headin' over to some cave Cloud wanted to see."

"A cave?"

"Yeah, but it's not on the map."

"Is it safe?"

"Dunno, but! I'm willing to explore new places anytime!" He paused and looked at me with a weird face. "…and… why are you back to looking like that?"

I grinned nervously. I totally forgotten about my current situation. "It's a long story."

Cid shrugged and turned his back to me. "Okay, whatever. Oh, and… Yuffie… I know you're under the bed."

Yuffie pounded the ground with her paw. "Be quiet! I'm sleeping!"

"Tch. Whatever. Just be at the usual place in a few."

I nodded and watched Cid close the door behind him. I sighed as Yuffie's head sprung right out from under the bed.

"Naanaaakiiii! What 'em I going to do!"

I frowned and looked up. "Maybe… there's something we need to do… or say."

"Like what?"

"Eh… uhm… maybe… if we say the name of our little symbol things…?"

Yuffie made a face at that. "Well… mine's 'ai'" She paused. Nothing happened. "Wow… great going, genius."

I grunted. "Well! Maybe if I say mine! … 'chikara'!"

We both paused for a while. Nothing happened.

"…oh wow… that sure did something," Yuffie grunted. "Noooow whhaaaatt?"

"Hmm… maybe if w-"

A burst of bright light suddenly shot out from both our of necklaces'. The lights began to intertwine with each other as we were engulfed inside. A few seconds have passed and the lights died down. I opened my eye and found that I was back to being human. Yuffie grabbed her shoulders and smiled big.

"Yay! I'm human again! Ah! I love me!"

I smiled.

Perhaps… the necklaces' had a mind of their own?

We headed straight for the cockpit after that. Everyone was present inside. I made my way next to Cloud and stared out the big window. We just passed Nibelheim and soon made our way east from there. The Highwind landed near a cave that seemed camouflaged within the steep cliffs.

Cloud turned to the team with a determined look on his face. "Alright, everybody! This cave is well known for its dangerous monsters and obstacles. This will be a very good place for some training. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Barret started. "How did ya hear 'bout this cave? It's not on da map!"

"I remember seeing this cave when I was little… but I never had the chance to explore it. I've heard that people tried going through… looking for something that was hidden deep within the cave. No one knows what it is. They've seen glimpses of it before the monsters in the chased them out."

"Ooh! Treasure! Materia?" Yuffie squealed happily. "I want it!"

"The chances are slim," Cloud responded. "Besides, we're just here to train for a couple of days. We still have to deal with Sephiroth later."

That made Yuffie's smile disappear. "Aww… fine then."

As soon as we climbed out of the Highwind, I sensed something strange from that cave. An evil aura was present inside, spewing out black fog from the entrance. I don't think anyone noticed this. Maybe… this was something that humans could not see? I ran up to Cloud before he had a chance to move.

"Cloud… I don't think this cave is safe." I said, shaking my fists to my sides.

He grinned at that. "I know it's not safe. We just have to be careful."

"No! I mean… I feel an evil presence from within this cave. It's nothing like the monsters we've been fighting all this time."

Cloud stared at the cave. "Yes, I felt this aura when I was little also. But, over the years, this aura has been rotted down to its core. I'm pretty sure that… whatever is in there has no chance against us. Trust me. We'll be fine."

I frowned then nodded my head.

Cloud turned to the rest and gestured to everyone that we were ready to enter.

A couple of steps inside the cave was like hell to me. The foul stench of rotting corpses clogged up my senses. Everyone seemed like they weren't affected at all. Yuffie turned her head to me.

"Are you alright, Nanaki?"

I pinched my nose shut and nodded. "I'm fine. It's just… my senses seem to be stronger than anyone else here. I can smell rotting corpses right when I entered."

"Eew!" Yuffie gagged. "That sucks for you."

I grunted.

We came across a three-way path. All seemed unwelcoming. The first path showed no signs of light and it was really narrow. The second path led to the bottom of the cave. It was surrounded by tiny glowworms that dimmed every time you made a sound. And the third path had a very suspicious style to it. The walls were smoother than the rest and the ground had a cobblestone path.

Tifa stepped towards the third path. "It's like this was carved by people."

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "Alright. Me and Tifa will take the third path. The first path is too narrow for any of us… so, Yuffie and Red will take it."

"Oh, sure. Just because we're small…" Yuffie muttered to herself.

"And the middle path will be Cid, Vincent, and Barret." Cloud continued.

"WHAT! But! That's the creepy path! I rather take the suspicious-looking one!" Cid complained.

Vincent sighed at Cid's childish behavior. "Think of it as the basement in your house."

"Shows how much _you_ know! I don't _have_ a basement!"

"Quit complainin' already!" Barret roared. "Let's go so we can get outta here!"

'So much for exploring new places, scaredy-cat.' I chuckled in my mind.

Barret pushed Cid down the path while Vincent stopped in front of the path. He turned to Cloud. "We will notify you if we find anything."

Cloud nodded. "Thank you." He turned to us now. "Are you ready?"

I nodded. "Yes, but… where will we meet?"

"…I'm… not entirely sure. But, I feel that we will meet up somewhere."

I hesitated. I wasn't too happy with that plan. "Okay," I finally said.

Yuffie stomped her foot hard on the ground. "ALRIGHTY! LET'S GO, NANAKI!" She pulled me towards the first path. "See you later, Cloud!"

"…I hope." I whispered to myself.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Ew, ew! Sticky, gooey, mushy stuff!"

"Just ignore it, Yuffie."

Of course, the narrowest cave always led to some sticky situation. And I meant that for both reasons. We haven't come across anything out of the ordinary… maybe because it was dark and we couldn't see anything. But, I managed to dodge a lot of low ceiling back there. I had no idea why… but lately, my beast senses seemed to be kicking in at the right moments.

I heard Yuffie fall on… whatever gooey stuff was on the ground. She shrieked and grabbed my arm, making me fall right next to her.

"GROSS-NESS! That's it! It's waaaaay too dark in here! Nanaki, can't you turn into your original form so your tail can be our little flashlight?"

"Yuffie, I can manage through the dark with my keen eyes already. You just follow close behind, okay?"

"O-Okay…"

We both held hands and continued our journey through the dark path. My surroundings seemed so clear to me now. The gooey stuff we were walking through was just wet soil. Wet soil… so… that meant there was some kind of stream flowing through?

I paused. I could hear a faint noise of a flowing stream nearby. I tugged Yuffie's arm towards the direction. I immediately stopped in front of a cliff. The stream was flowing out of the rock and down a slope.

"Yuffie, be careful. There's a steep slope that-"

"Slope?"

Yuffie stepped forward, causing both of us to lose our balance. We began to slide down, ramming against the rough stonewalls. I quickly looked around, noticing glowing yellow eyes surrounding us.

Our so-called, 'water slide ride' ended with us landing right in a puddle of mud. I lifted myself up and stood in front of Yuffie. She looked up, unsure about what just happened.

"N-Nanaki?"

"Yuffie… don't move."

"Why not?"

The glowing yellow eyes closed in on us. I narrowed my eyes, trying to make out who these figures were. Unfortunately, my vision was not working right. All I could see was a blur.

"…we have company."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter one! Ah! I knoooow where I am going with this thing. (evil laugh) Don't worry. Nothing bad. The next chapter might come in late. I might push it to like… a week or something. I have testing going on this week and 2 next week. So… the… post-chapters-ever-other-day will be changed for the time being. I ish sorry! Anyways, I hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	2. Unexpected Encounter

Important A/N: Alright, in the last chapter… I made a tiny mistake. The 'yellow eyes' was supposed to be 'green eyes'. That's all. (loud cough) 

I've been thinking about how I should do the perspective. I feel that 3rd person is more suited for this particular story. But, never fear! It's still going to be about Nanaki and Yuffie. (thumbs up)

Keep in mind that the first two sections was during Nanaki and Yuffie's venture through their path. So... yeah. In case you get confuzzled.

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to moi! Only the idea of this story.

**Reveal Your True Eyes**  
Chapter Two 

Unexpected Encounter  
_"You may call it as… 'fun'." -Sephiroth _

_Meanwhile…_

Several hours have passed since Cloud and the gang entered the cave. After Vincent's group had entered their path, they were immediately greeted by the glowworms. The glowworms were their only source of light to navigate through the dark cave. The only problem was, sometimes the worms wouldn't exactly cooperate with them. With all the noise they've been making, the bright glow would sometimes vanish in an instant. Another source of the problem? Cid and Barret. Cid kept complaining about how dark the cave was and Barret would always retort with a, 'Whatcha talkin' 'bout foo'?' Vincent's patience had already left him long before.

Vincent turned around, his cape brushing in front of the arguing men. He narrowed his glowing red eyes and sighed.

"It would be easier if you two would stop arguing already. You're making it hard enough to handle already."

"Well," Cid started. "I'm just saying it's too dark in here. Heck, even the frickin' worms aren't helping us!"

"…you're making them restless."

"Tch. Like you can actually talk to them…"

Barret stomped his foot hard against the wall. Every worm on the wall fell to the ground at that.

"Shu'up, foo'! Yer makin' a lot of noise!"

"_I _am? You're the one to talk!" The pilot bit his cigarette tightly. "Why did Cloud havetah stick you with me!"

'Why am I even here…' Vincent sighed in his head. He shook the thought off and finally said out loud, "…you're making Chaos angry."

Cid and Barret immediately shut up. The last thing they wanted was for Vincent to transform into that creepy monster. Vincent turned to hide the slight grin planted on his face.

"Let's go."

"O-Okay…" the two responded at the same time.

No sooner had the group left the area, they were already encountering random monsters. However, they could not make out on the figure itself. The only thing revealing them were their glowing green eyes.

A sudden impact in the dark caused Cid to crash into the wall behind him. He immediately got up and attempted to attack where the figure would have been. But, the results were something he didn't expect. He didn't hit anything. Nothing but the air. The pilot paused in shock as another "invisible" figure from behind kicked him straight to the ground. He cursed under his breath.

"Damnit! What's going on here!"

Barret shot a few bullets from his gun arm then answered, "I dunno! It's like they're ghosts or somethin'!"

A few gunshots were heard in the back. Vincent dodged the enemy's attack and backed against the wall. The glowing eyes, now wide open, shined brightly into Vincent's. He groaned as his own eyes were gradually changing from red to green.

"Vincent! Where the hell are you!" Cid yelled into the darkness. He had heard Vincent's groans somewhere. "Shit! Barret! Go to him!"

He didn't answer.

Cid called his name out again. Same results. He paused, noticing that it was completely silent in the area. He slowly stood up to his feet. The glowworms suddenly appeared, brightening up the whole area for him. Cid gasped as he spotted his friends helpless on the ground.

"Shit! What the hell happened to you guys?" he yelled as he made his way towards his friends.

Vincent slowly shook his head. "Get… away…" he muttered.

Cid didn't hear that. "Hey, where're those freaky glowing eye dudes? Don't worry, I'll kick their frickin' asses!"

"Nooo… t…trap!" Barret managed to say.

"A trap?"

Suddenly, the cave went completely black. Only groans noises were heard. A bright green light appeared, engulfing Cid inside. It soon ended, leaving nothing but the sound of silence.

"…finish those two brats… have them join the others inside the Lifestream…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Oh, Cloud! Look how beautiful this rock formation is!"

"…"

"…Cloud?"

Cloud lifted his head and stared at Tifa. "Huh? Oh… sorry. Yeah, sure."

Tifa pouted then continued to admire the sparkling rocks.

After all these years, Cloud was finally able to explore this cave. Ever since he was little, he would always see people from his town head straight for the cave. He was obviously too little to actually to inside. He told himself that someday he would explore the cave. It wasn't because of that hidden treasure, but because he sensed something in there. It felt familiar to him, but he just couldn't put his finger on it. The aura had changed over the years. Something… sinister and powerful. He wanted to know what it was once and for all.

Without realizing, Cloud bumped into Tifa. He quickly looked up, wondering what was wrong.

"Tifa?" he said.

She pointed in front of her. An old looking door with an unusual 'U' symbol on it was present. "Why would there be door inside a cave?"

Cloud narrowed his eyes. "I don't know..."

Tifa leaned forward, spotting the most determined look of her friend ever. She frowned at that. "What's wrong?"

"…I feel something incredibly strong there. It's like… I've felt it before…"

"When you were little?"

"No. It's hard to explain." Cloud paused. "…let's go."

Tifa watched her friend walk towards the door. As usual, Cloud was keeping his troubles inside. She wanted to help… but there was something about him _now_ that was different than before.

As soon as Cloud made it to the door, Tifa stopped him.

"Wait! What if there's…"

The blonde shook his head. "Don't worry. We'll be fine."

Just then, the door slowly opened for the two unexpected guests. They cautiously examined the area before them. There was no sign of anyone opening the door for them at all. The room with filled with nothing but silence and darkness. It's mysterious and frightening appearance made Tifa's shoulders shiver with fear. A feeling that was quite novel to her. She usually showed no fear and worry. However, in this case… she was revealing a side of her that she never wanted to show.

Cloud gestured for Tifa to stay back while he entered first. The first steps inside the new area sent a cold chill down Cloud's back. He somehow recognized this feeling… but he just couldn't figure out what it was. It was definitely something he came to familiarize while he was traveling with his friends.

'…it's not a "something",' Cloud thought to himself. '…it's a "someone"…'

The brunette slowly walked up to Cloud, observing her surroundings. "C-Cloud? Are you alright?"

Cloud's eyes widened as the door behind slammed shut. Tifa gasped and wrapped her arms around her friend's waist. A dim light lit from above onto them.

'Why am I showing such feelings?' She shook the thought out of her head. 'No! I must do something!'

The girl immediately went into battle stance. Her fists were clenched tightly out front, waiting to attack anything that decided to confront her. A few moments have passed, and nothing came to her. Tifa cracked her knuckles then turned her head slightly to Cloud.

"You alright there, Cl… CLOUD!"

Cloud had vanished.

'What? But… I didn't hear him leave or anything. Cloud…?'

The dim light from above suddenly disappeared. Tifa was now left alone… in the dark room. Her attempts of escaping through the darkness was useless. No matter how much she tried, the darkness would cause her to panic even more. This was even something she couldn't handle than fighting monsters twice her size.

"CLOUD!"

Bright green eyes appeared in front of Tifa. "…Tifa…"

"C-Cloud! You jerk! Don't leave me like that again!"

Tifa reached out to bop Cloud in the head, but she hit nothing. She gasped then backed away from the glowing eyes.

"Y…You're… You're not!"

Another set of green eyes appeared behind the girl. A dark shadowy hand rested on her shoulders, causing Tifa's eyes to gradually change into a green color.

"…they're finished…"

* * *

"SHURIKEN!"

Yuffie threw her oversized shuriken at the glowing eyes, but nothing seemed to affect them. She withdrew her weapon and backed up against Nanaki who was panting uncontrollably.

"What's going on?" she asked her friend. "How come they're not dead?"

"I… don't know. It's like… they're ghosts or something…"

The eyes began closing in on the two. They immediately went into battle stance at that. Nanaki examined the enemy's eyes very closely, trying to figure out what he was fighting against.

'It's like… these eyes don't have life in them…'

'Hm. You sure are the persistent type aren't you?'

Nanaki gasped. "Who said that!"

The green eyes grouped together, forming an orb that floated right above them. It soon broke open, creating an explosion of light that filled the room. Yuffie and Nanaki gazed in shock at the figure before them.

"S-Sephiroth!" Nanaki yelled. He brought his arm in front of Yuffie. "But… it can't be! You're supposed to…"

Sephiroth grinned as he descended towards the grown. The two couple cautiously backed away from him.

"Nanaki, hm? Never expected you to be a human," Sephiroth smirked.

Yuffie pointed her shuriken towards the enemy. "YOU! WHAT'S YOUR BUSINESS HERE!"

"Business? It's not about business. You may call it as… 'fun'."

"… 'fun'?" Nanki repeated.

"Indeed. You're friends were no fun… so, I guess you two will suffice… for now." Sephiroth lifted his Masamune and pointed it to his foes. "You two… will join your friends inside the Lifestream."

"L-Lifestream?"

A circle suddenly formed underneath Nanaki and Yuffie. Its bind spell prevented them from escaping. Bright lights shot out from the ground, engulfing the figures inside. Sephiroth watched as his enemy's souls were being extracted from their bodies.

Finally, the lights died down, leaving their bodies as empty shells. Sephiroth walked up to the bodies and kneeled down before them.

"Now… the game's begun."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter two! If you ever read my other story_ Silent Wind_, (which is still uncompleted) then you might know what the talk about 'Lifestream' will be about. Yeah… so… I'm sort of taking my own idea from another story… and sticking it in here. Oh, oh. I feel that THAT idea will do much better in this story… hopefully. Anyways, hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! Nanaki and Yuffie's adventure begins next chapter! 


	3. Close Yet So Far Away

A/N: Ah! I'm sorry this came out so late! I've been going here to there… I recently celebrated my bro's graduation and there were parties nonstop. (stretches) Anyways, since I haven't been able to type up any stories, I might have lost my 'touch' in some parts of this story. So… you can blame me if you see something wrong. (dodges knives)

Thanks for reviewing! I hope you enjoy this chapter. (thumbs up)

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to moi! Only the idea of this story.. and.. uh… the idea for the Lifestream thingy belongs to my _Silent Wind_ story so.. yeah. (scratches head)

**Reveal Your True Eyes**  
Chapter Three

Close Yet So Far Away  
_"Ah… the outside world. I wish… I could see it again." -Aeris_

Sephiroth grinned as his long sword brushed passed the lifeless bodies. His plan to send all his annoying foes straight to the Lifestream was a success. The world was in his hands now… for annihilation. Though, he couldn't help but wonder how the Lifestream actually accepted the new souls. He shook that thought out. The only thing that mattered was that he was free to do as he pleases.

He stared back down at the bodies of Nanaki and Yuffie. A frown appeared on his face.

'I wonder why they didn't put up such a fight,' Sephiroth thought to himself. 'The others showed signs of worry and fear. But… not these two.' He looked away, staring at the bright green ceiling. '…something tells me that… they're going to make it out…'

Sephiroth growled at himself for thinking such things. But, it was true. He felt that there was a way for an escape. He grinned and turned away. If that were to happen, he would be prepared for it.

As he made his way through the cave, footsteps were heard coming towards him. He narrowed his eyes. As he placed his hand above his Masamune, a figure appeared through the darkness. Another figure also appeared behind the first. The first figure stepped forward, revealing Reno of the Turks.

"Just what I need," Sephiroth sighed. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Our stuffed toy led us here for your information."

"……oh… that annoying creature with the oversized Moogle."

Reno pointed his nightstick to Sephiroth. "I know that those… AVALANCHE guys are here too."

Sephiroth turned away. "They left a while ago."

"Shyeah right."

"Reno," Rude stepped up to his friend. "We're only here to retrieve-"

Reno brushed Rude away from his side. "Yeah, yeah. And, we've also picked up some strong forces in there. I know it's not any of our business… but-"

Sephiroth stepped towards Reno and stared down at him. "It's none of your business. Go inside if you please. You'll find nothing…" At that, he exited out of the cave.

Reno sighed and scratched his head. He didn't think that passing Sephiroth would be so easy. Even though he could tell that something was going to happen. He gestured to his friend to continue searching in the cave.

"Reno," Rude finally said. "We're not here to look for our tracking device, are we?"

"That piece of junk? Tch. I'm here for something else."

"Like?"

Reno rubbed his hands together. "I heard that there was something valuable was left in here… I wanna know what!"

Rude rolled his eyes and turned away. "You're too greedy."

"That guy from before… disturbed something with great power. You felt it too, right?"

His friend nodded. "Yes… but… what exactly _is_ in there? Is it to stop… whatever that was disturbed?"

"…one way to find out."

They both headed deep inside the dark cave. Unknown to what dangers lie ahead of them.

* * *

"Hey, hey! Is it awake?" 

"Try poking it!"

"Ew, no! What if it wakes up and eats me?"

Nanaki's eye fluttered open at that. The first thing he saw were a group of kids staring right at him. He gasped and sat up, making everyone jump in surprise.

"It's awake!" a boy exclaimed to his friends.

"Hey, hey! Are you… one of _them_?" a girl asked, tugging the newcomer's tail.

Nanaki flinched, realizing that he was no longer a human. That was a bit strange. He couldn't remember what had happened before. Only, he was with Yuffie… and Sephiroth.

He jumped up at the mention of Sephiroth. "AH! W-WHERE'S SEPHIROTH?"

The kids tilted their heads. "Sefer…wha?"

"…where… am I?"

"You're in our house! You came out of the sky and you appeared right there!"

Nanaki blinked. "…I don't seem to understand. I thought I was… inside a cave…?"

"This is the Lifestream,"

Everyone turned their heads at the voice. Big smiles appeared on their faces as a figure dressed in pink entered the little house. The kids ran towards the figure and crowded around it.

"Ri, Ri! Look what just appeared!"

Nanaki stood up with wide eyes. He couldn't believe who was standing right in front of him. Someone he hadn't seen in a long time…

"…A-Aeris?"

She didn't respond to that. She just stood still and continued staring at the creature before her. A smile formed on her face as she leaned down.

"I'm sorry, have we met?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Everything didn't make sense for Nanaki. He thought it over and over and finally remembered what had happened before. He was inside a cave with everyone. They separated… then he met Sephiroth. Sephiroth used some kind of magic that sent him to… what they say the 'Lifestream'. That's what through Nanaki off. There was no possible way he could be inside the Lifestream. Unless if he was…

"Excuse me?"

Nanaki blinked out from his thoughts and looked at 'Aeris'. "Y-Yes?"

"What did you call me before?"

"Oh… Aeris."

"Aeris…" she cupped her hand on her chin and looked up. "That… sounds so familiar…"

The lion-like creature frowned. 'You… don't remember me, do you?' he asked to himself. 'It's only been a couple of months...' He sighed and finally asked out loud, "Uhm… is this _really_ the Lifestream?"

'Aeris' nodded and turned towards the window. "Yes. Those who passed away is sent here."

"But… I don't belong here! I'm not-!"

The girl shook her head. "No… we belong here. I was the same when I arrived here for the first time. It took me awhile to get used to. Anyone who lives in the Lifestream… help the world stay alive. The feeling is wonderful."

Nanaki shook his tail around. "No… you don't understand! Someone _sent_ me here! I don't belong here!"

"…that's impossible. No one has the power to send you here."

"There's someone with incredible power that wants to continue his evil ways to destroy the world!"

Aeris lifted her eyebrows. "…what world?"

"The whole world!… uh… outside of this world!… Lifestream… uh…"

She giggled at his attempt to explain. Nanaki blushed and rubbed his ear.

"Don't worry, I was just messing with you."

Nanaki smiled. '… Aeris.'

"Ah… the outside world. I wish… I could see it again." She turned to the lion-like creature. "But… I cannot believe that you are not… well, you know. How can you prove it to me?"

'…Aeris…'

"Riiiii!"

The two turned towards a little girl that had skipped inside. She jumped up to Aeris' arms and tugged her it.

"Are you done talking to mister doggy yet?"

Nanaki's ears twitched at that.

Aeris giggled. "No, not yet. Have you been listening to our conversation?"

The girl grinned nervously. "I couldn't help it!"

"You've been eavesdropping, and that's not good."

"…ears-a-wha?"

Nanaki smiled and turned to Aeris. "So, what have you been doing here?"

"Ever since I first arrived here, I've been taking care of these children. You see, they're not ready to send their powers away to the Lifestream, to help the world stay alive. I have to protect them until the time is right."

"…what do you mean?"

"Some of these children just arrived here. They are unknown to what kind of powers the Lifestream holds for them. Once they're settled here, the Lifestream will extract their powers to send to the 'other world'. In other words, we are the source that keeps the Lifestream and the other world alive."

Nanaki nodded. "I see. I didn't really think that… you know… this sort of thing was actually inside the Lifestream. I thought it worked differently."

Aeris tilted her head. "…"

The little girl tugged Aeris' arm once again. "Ri! When mister doggy came here, there were bright balls coming out from the sky. They looked different from the others. And they were heading to the different parts of the world!"

"Huh? How were they different?"

"Well… when there are new people coming, the balls are usually a blue-green color, right? But these were totally green."

"…I wonder…"

Nanaki's head perked up at that. "Those were my friends!" 'Yuffie!' "Tell me, where did they go!"

The girl pointed in different directions. "There, here, and there!"

"Now, now. Let's not get overboard here." Aeris patted the girls' head. "Are you sure? You're always known to tell bad lies."

"Hey, Ri… where did mister doggy go to?"

The woman looked up. She gasped and immediately ran towards the front door. When she arrived there, the door had opened and there was no sign of him. She leaned against the wall and clasped her hands together.

'…red… his fur was red… like…'

* * *

"…where am I?" 

"Don't worry about that."

"…w-who are you? You sound familiar."

"Hm. You are not like Number Thirteen. You are… different."

"…!"

* * *

A/N: End of chapter three! Uh… take a really reeeaaalllyyy big guess who was talking to who in the last part. It seemed a little pointless… but… I had to stick it in there. My lil idea for next chapter. I gave yoouuuuz a clue. (thumbs up) Anyways! I hope you liked and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	4. You're My Answer

A/N: Ah! Chapter four is finally up!… a week later. (moans) Sorry about that… yet again. I might as well post up a new chapter after a week has past or something. I've been unusually lazy lately… hey, it's summer anyway. (nervous smile) Anyways! I hope you enjoy reading!

Thanks for reviewing! And… no, sorry… tis not Cloud. You got the Hojo part right tho.  
Eeep! Sorry if it confused you. The pieces aren't put together yet, but it will soon! I hope this chapter will answer some of your questions.

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to me… only the idea of the story and blah blah blah etc etc.

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Four

You're My Answer  
_"Many people… will be very hurt if they see you." -Nanaki_

A small child slowly entered the room 'Aeris' was in. She had been worried about her ever since 'Mister Doggy' had left so suddenly. Just the thought of seeing her caretaker depressed started to feel uncomfortable. The girl stood in front of the door, tugging her pink dress. 'Aeris' did not notice the presence of the girl. She started mumbling to herself.

"Why does that creature seem so familiar? Everything he said to me started to click in my head. I… think I _did_ meet him. But… where?" Aeris paused and looked up. "Aeris… I… am Aeris?"

"U-Uhm… Ri?"

Aeris blinked out of her thoughts. She turned to the little girl and smiled. "Oh, I'm sorry. Were you trying to tell me something?"

The child shook her head. "No… I was just wondering about the name 'Aeris'. Is… that your _real_ name?"

The woman frowned at that. "I… don't know. I feel that it is but… I don't remember anything…"

"You know what? I don't remember anything either. My name… my whole past… nothing. Do you think… the Lifestream _wants_ us to forget about that?"

'Aeris' remained silent. The Lifestream was the only source of energy to keep the 'other world' alive. She never gave any thought about past memories. Was this something she should worry about now? Was it even necessary?

She shook her head and placed her hands on the child's shoulders. "We shouldn't think of such things now. We should only concentrate on protecting the 'other world'. We don't need to worry ab-"

"But! I'm worried about you! I heard you talk about what Mister Doggy said to you a while ago! That your name was 'Aeris', right? Maybe… you can find out your _real _past if you go with him. I don't want to see you act this way. You're not the Ri I knew when I came here for the first time."

Aeris smiled as she hugged the girl tightly. She finally released her and stared into her blue eyes. "I thank you… for always looking out for me. You're right. I really _do_ want to know the real me. The real… 'Aeris'."

The little girl smiled big. "I hope you find it!"

"But… what about you? Don't you want to know about your past?"

"…I do… but I don't think I'm ready yet. Maybe… I'll learn the truth from you when you come back."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Nanaki stopped to catch his breath. He quickly looked behind him and sighed in relief. Ever since he left Aeris to find Yuffie, he never stopped to wonder where the heck he was going. Perhaps, he should have asked where those orbs were headed. He growled to himself as he sat on the ground. Rushing wasn't going to get him anywhere.

"What am I going to do? What if… something happened to my friends? I want to help… but… just how long would it take for me to find them…?"

Just then, Nanaki heard something coming towards him. He turned and brought his tail up. 'Aeris' suddenly appeared through the tall trees. She was carrying a small backpack and a bottle of water in one hand. Nanaki calmed down and sighed in relief.

"Heeeyyy!" Aeris called out.

"Aeri- I…I mean… hey," Nanaki responded.

Aeris finally stopped to catch her breath. "Wow… you… you went really far. Not many people… head towards the Lifestream Forest."

"…Lifestream Forest?"

"Yeah. It's said that those who walk through the forest never come out the other end. Some say their souls have been taken away, thus leaving nothing behind."

Nanaki's flamed dimmed at that. "O-Oh. Well, I really want t-"

"I would like to accompany you. You seem… to know a lot about me more than I do. Perhaps, if I travel with you, I will realize my past clearly." Aeris leaned towards Nanaki. "If… that's alright with you...?"

"Of course. But… I must warn you. Many people… will be very hurt if they see you."

"…why? Wouldn't they be… happy to see me?"

"I'm sure they will… but… you… won't remember them… at all."

The girl frowned at that. "Oh. Well, I hope that… I will remember _something_ before I see them. That's why I'm traveling with you."

Nanaki nodded his head. "Okay. Just be prepared for anything."

At that, the two began their long journey towards the Lifestream Forest. Although Nanaki felt a little worried about Aeris traveling with him, he felt safe with her. It was like… old times. He smiled and lifted his head.

"So," he started, "I might as well reintroduce myself…"

* * *

"Ugh, shit! Don't tell me we havetah choose a path?"

Reno tapped his nightstick against the wall of the cave. He grunted at the thought of choosing a path. He knew he should have dragged Elena with them. But no! He was being too nice to her, saying that it wasn't necessary for her to come along.

Reno handed Rude his nightstick. "Hit me as hard as you can."

Rude stared at the stick then to the three paths. "Reno, if we must search for that… whatever, we should each split up, and pick a path that looks suspicious."

The Turks perked his redhead up. "Yeah… that's a better idea!" He swiped his nightstick away and pointed to the middle path. "I'll take that path, and… you take the one that looks more suspicious."

The other Turks sighed. "But, what about the first path?"

"…what about it?"

"Well, that looks suspicious as well."

"What the hell are you trying to say? Want me to split you into two?"

Rude sighed. "I'm surprised Elena wasn't giving us a hard time to come…"

Reno grunted. "Whatever!" '…even though she would be of help right now…'

The two remained silent. Reno pulled his lip and nudged Rude's arm. "So uh… then… you know… call her."

Rude smiled nervously and took out his cellphone. "Yes, sir."

* * *

A large shadow cast against the white walls of a room. It revealed a rather awkward figure of an old scientist with messy hair. The figure brought up a glowing bottle of liquid and poured it onto its experiment. The experiment growled and kicked its limbs around. After a few minutes, it finally calmed down and began panting. The scientist grinned and turned away.

Soon after, another scientist appeared. It's shadow cast a figure that was not much taller than the first scientist. It rested his hand against the wall and sighed.

"And… explain to me again… where you found this… thing, Hojo?"

Hojo turned around and smirked. "I told you. It just appeared in this room. Just in time, might I add. I've been rather bored," he frowned at the look of his colleague. "You should be fired up just as much as I am, Professor Gast."

Gast narrowed his eyes. "I still feel very uncomfortable whenever I'm around you. I rather die again than to work with you… again. I will never forget what you did before…"

"Tch. That's all in the past now. You can't do anything about it. And besides, they're residing inside this Lifestream… so, you can search for your 'dearly beloveds' and go back to those lovey-dovey days."

Gast bowed his head and growled. "No… they won't remember me anyway. They… probably lost their memories."

"Hey, help me with this thing, will ya?"

The two scientists lifted the creature and placed it inside a big test tube. Steam escaped from underneath as the door closed. Hojo ran his finger around the tube as he walked around.

"Ah… this will be my greatest experiment," he sighed.

"…what is it?"

"For some reason… this creature looks exactly like my Number Thirteen. I wonder… if he… gave bir-"

"But," Gast purposely interrupted, "didn't you say that 'Thirteen' was the only species to live? It's not possible to find another one of its kind."

Hojo placed his hands behind his back. "I never said it was _im_possible. That's why… I'm going to experiment with this creature right here."

"And what? What are you planning?"

The scientist slammed his hands against the test tube. An evil laugh escaped from his mouth. "Several new souls have just entered this world. If you noticed, they're much different from the others. They must be stronger than the rest of these suckers. This gives me a chance to test out my new experiment."

The test tube began to fill up with green liquid. The creature inside began to float towards the center as the liquid reached its maximum height. The scientists turned and exited out from the room.

Meanwhile, inside the test tube, Yuffie's eyes slowly opened. She turned her head, but couldn't make out where she was exactly. Her teeth gritted as the flame on her tail grew bigger.

'Hojo… just wait til I dig my fangs into your good-for-nothing flesh!'

* * *

A/N: End of chapter four! (stretches face) You're probably wondering, "Heeyyy… what about the rest of the gang?" Ph34r not! I'm gonna fin-a-lee stick some of AVALANCHE in the next chapter so… yeah. Uh… so! Hope you enjoyed reading and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	5. Our Paths Will Cross

A/N: Ah! Another week almost passed! Argy, but! I managed to finish this before lunch time! Hehe…

Thanks for reviewing! I actually feel bad I put Yuffie in such a horrible position. Don't worry though, Nanaki will save her! Whoo!

Omigosh! I was going to do that to Barret! Hehe, however, his part was supposed to come in later, but… I decided it's his turn to shine now. (thumbs up)

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to me… and so on and so forth.

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Five 

Our Paths Will Cross   
_"I don't care! I still want to see her!" -Barret_

"Professor Hojo, please reconsider," Gast pleaded to his colleague. He followed Hojo as he began setting up an odd-looking contraption.

Hojo smirked in response and continued the setup of what appeared to be a laser.

Gast shook his head. "You've changed everything! Everything was peaceful until _you_ arrived here! I'm telling you again… please reconsi-"

"Silence! You insolent swine!" Hojo snapped. "This is what I need to do. For the sake of all the civilians of this good-for-nothing world!"

"Hojo. What does erasing memories have to do with the sake of the world?"

Hojo turned and grinned. "Because, I love to see people suffer."

"You're still mad as ever!"

Completely ignoring Gast's last comment, he quickly made his way to the other side of the lab. After pressing a few buttons on his computer, a huge screen, revealing Nanaki and Aeris, suddenly appeared.

Gast widened his eyes. "No… what are you planning on doing with my daughter!"

"They're trying to interfere with my experimentations. I want to stop them." He narrowed his eyes at that. "However, they seem too strong for me. Perhaps I will… _use_ someone."

"Stop this!"

"SILENCE! There is nothing for you to do now, Gast. No one can stop me."

"I could just leave anytime now, can't I?"

"Oh, no. I still need you… unless… _you_ want to become one of my experiments, hm?"

The other scientist hung his head forward at that.

Hojo grinned. "Good. Now then, ready the laser. And get ready to cover your ears."

* * *

Barret shook the weird feeling out from his mind. The various voices surrounding him sounded so familiar. But, he couldn't figure out who they were. He had the sudden urge to yell 'SHUT UP' to them, but his body ached in places he thought never existed. He managed a twitch and the only noises that came out from his mouth were 'Nnn' and 'Guuuh'.

They were laughing now. Barret cringed his teeth together like a mad dog ready to attack his prey. The voices died down after a while, allowing a cool breeze to blow across the man's face. The feeling seemed to bring Barret's body back into motion. He managed another groan and finally twitched his eyes open. He saw nothing but blur.

Suddenly, the voices returned, only this time, he could finally see who was responsible for it.

A girl with brown hair leaned forward. She placed her luke warm hand over Barret's forehead and smiled.

"He should be alright now," she said to whoever was there.

Barret twitched his nose. "W-What?" he finally said.

"Whoaho!" a deep voice exclaimed. "It has spoken!"

A rather tubby figure snickered at that. "C'mon now, that's not nice, Biggs."

'B-Biggs…!'

Barret immediately sat up from his bed and stared at the three figures. They jumped back in shock at that. He couldn't believe it. Out of the whole Lifestream, he actually encountered his old friends in on try! He shook his head around and pointed to his old friends.

"J-Jessie… B-Biggs… W-Wedge… is… is it really… you guys?"

The men stared at each other and pinched Barret's cheeks.

"Hey!" Biggs smirked, "It's been forever, man!"

"Didn't think we'd see you so soon!" Wedge added.

"You guys…" Barret wiped the tears that were streaming down his face.

Jessie tilted her head. "…we've seen him before?"

Barret gasped and turned to the girl. "J-Jessie? It's me, Barret! From AVALANCHE?"

Jessie pouted at that. "I keep hearing, 'AVALANCHE' this! 'AVALANCHE' that! I'm telling you, I don't know what that is!"

Biggs gestured for her to exit the room. "Okay, okay, Jess. Is it okay if us guys talk for a while?"

She nodded and walked out of the room.

Barret quickly stood up from his bed and clenched his fist.

"What the hell is goin' on 'ere! Why can't she remember who I am!"

"Calm down, Barret!" Wedge hushed. "Don't let Jessie hear on this."

"What the crap for!"

Biggs leaned against a wall. "It's a long story," he paused for a while. "After what happened back in Midgar, we three headed straight for the Lifestream. Everything was normal, mind you. We spent a good couple of months trying to figure out what we were now."

Barret lifted an eyebrow. "What you were?"

He nodded. "Yeah, we weren't convinced enough that we were actually part of the Lifestream. But, there was one thing that convinced us enough."

"Which was?"

Biggs nudged Wedge's arm. He frowned and hung his head forward. "Barret… we saw your wife here."

Barret widened his eyes, but remained silent.

Wedge continued on, "We recognized her the minute we saw her. Of course, she didn't know who we were. But, after we told her that we were friends of yours, she couldn't help but talk about you. In fact, ever since she arrived in the Lifestream, she thought nothing but you."

"…M…Myrna?"

Biggs nodded. "Yes. Dude, she told us what happened to your home back then. I understand why you didn't want to bring it up."

"…I still despise those ShinRa…"

The tubby man nodded in agreement. "_We_ all do."

"That's not all," Biggs closed his eyes and sighed. "Anyways, after we met with Myrna, we stayed with her in this same house for a while. Jessie became close with her so, they were stuck to each other like glue. A 'girl thing' or something, I dunno.

"A few months later, Jessie and Myrna were getting weird vibes all of a sudden. They claim that something was messing with their minds… important memories were being erased. After a while, their memories of us, AVALANCHE…everything they cherished… completely disappeared from their mind."

Barret shook his head. "No… w-what happened to Myrna?"

Wedge bowed his head forward. "To tell you the truth… we don't know. The last time we saw her, she was heading towards some forest. Something called the 'Lifestream Forest'."

"What the hell is that?"

"Don't know. But, I've heard people that it's really dangerous, and that no one comes back in their 'full forms'."

Barret stomped towards the door at that. "I don't know what the hell that means, but I'm going to look for her!"

Just when he reached the door, Biggs blocked his way. Barret gripped his huge fist on his shoulder, tightening his grip on it.

"Move, Biggs."

"I won't."

"MOVE!"

"Listen! Even if you find her… she won't remember you."

"I don't care! I still want to see her!"

He shoved his friend out of his way at that. As he made his way through the hallway, he stopped and turned to his friends.

"Hey, tell Jessie that it was good to see her." '…again.'

As soon as he made his way out of the house, an ear-splitting noise sounded off. Barret covered his ears as his eyes turned completely black. As the noise dimmed down, he quickly made his way towards Lifestream Forest.

* * *

"So this 'Barret' person…lost his friend after they fought with each other?"

Nanaki nodded his head. "Yes. There was nothing we could do at that time. He decided his own fate."

Aeris sighed to herself, placing her hands behind her back. "I see. Perhaps I will meet this 'Dyne' sometime?"

"Maybe."

Aeris smiled sweetly at that. "Is there anything else I should know about this 'Barret'?"

"Well, I've heard he had three friends, but they died after a fight with the ShinRa back in Midgar."

"Oh my. I do hope that Barret is alright with this?"

Nanaki smiled at her. "I'm sure he's fine. Although, he tries to hide the pain of losing his friends, he's strong. I don't think I would be able to hold the pain inside if I lost a friend of mine."

"…Red…"

The two travelers soon arrived at the Lifestream Forest. A dark green glow dimmed on and off from within the forest and the eerie silence caused the fur on Nanaki's back to literally stand upright. He crouched forward and growled. Aeris tilted her head in confusion.

"Is there something wrong, Red Thirteen?"

"I-I sense some great power flowing through. So… _this_ is the Lifestream Forest."

The girl nodded her head. "Yes. After what happened not too long ago, many people fear that their fates would end mysteriously like what happened before."

Nanaki stood up and nodded at the forest. "We have no choice. My friends could be somewhere in or out of this forest. I must find them."

Aeris gripped her small backpack strap tightly at that. She nodded. "I'm ready. I, too, want to find them."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Only a couple minutes have passed but there wasn't any sign of anything out of the ordinary. However, the dark green glow gave it such an eerie feeling. Nanaki and Aeris weren't exactly sure if they were going the right way. They had passed a couple of other paths, but they decided that going straight would lead them out.

"I'm so tired, Red Thirteen… may I rest for a while?"

"Well, alright. Just for a while, I guess."

Aeris sighed and sat on the ground. She stretched out her legs as Nanaki did the same also. She tilted her head, noticing a necklace tied around the creature's neck.

"My, that's a very lovely necklace, Red Thirteen."

Nanaki smiled. "You can call me Red, and, thank you. This is very special to me."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It holds some kind of power. I'm still unknown as to what kind of powers it has exactly."

"Wow. I think it sounds interesting."

Nanaki placed his paw over the necklace. 'Powers that can change me into a human? Oh yeah… I wonder if Yuffie's alright…'

Just then, several gun shots sounded off not too far from where they were resting. Aeris quickly got to her feet and stood behind Nanaki. His tail lifted up as he growled loudly.

"Who's there!"

Finally, a large figure made his way through the tall trees. His black eyes shimmering in the dark green glow. He held his machine gun hand in the air.

Nanaki widened his eyes. "B-Barret? Barret! It's us!"

He didn't respond to that.

"That's Barret? Oh my," Aeris whispered to herself.

'Something's wrong with him. Is _he_ the great power I sensed earlier?'

* * *

Reno tapped his foot against the walls of the cave. He and Rude have been waiting for Elena to arrive. It's only been half an hour, but it felt like an eternity.

Reno bit his lip and growled. "Damnit! Where is she?"

"Not sure. Perhaps we interrupted something she was currently doing?"

"Tch. Whatever."

Finally, a helicopter made it's way towards the cave. As soon as it landed, Elena quickly jumped out and ran towards the two men. She smiled sweetly and saluted to them.

"I'm here, sirs!"

The red head grunted and pulled Elena inside the cave. "Yeah, yeah. C'mon, we've got work to do."

They soon arrived at the three paths. Elena swiped her arm away from Reno and sighed.

"You still haven't told me why you called me here. Don't tell me you want me to enter one of those paths?"

"Uh… DUH! That's why we need three people," Reno pointed to one of the paths. "You go to the right, 'cause it's too narrow for us. And I-"

"Whoa, whoa. Wait! FIRST, tell me why we're here."

Rude adjusted his glasses. "We sensed something in here. We're not sure what, though."

The woman tapped her foot. "Oh yeah… I remember you guys talking about that. Reno, what is it?"

He shrugged. "I dunno! It might be something valuable, helpful, I dunno. I just can't leave without finding out!"

"You're probably being greedy again…"

"No! Look, we'll keep in touch so, keep your phones on alright?"

Everyone nodded and entered their path.

* * *

A/N: End of chapter five! Arg! I finally mentioned Nanaki's necklace! So… yes, it _does_ serve a purpose in this story. You'll find out soon enough. Also, the lil Turks part, it may not be much now, but trust me. Their role will be much bigger later on. So now they're like the comic relief. Hehehe... Anyways, hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	6. I’ll Find You

A/N: Ah! I'm soooo late with this chapter. (bows down) I ish sorry! My memory has been blah… so I almost forgot what the previous chapters were about. O.o My fault if I totally re-explained things here. But, I checked so… there shouldn't be any… but… just in case. (prays)

Disclaimer: FF7 doesn't belong to meee and… the blah blah blah either.

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Six

I'll Find You  
_"You just stay here and… be all Vincenty or something!" -Cid_

Nanaki dodged Barret's heavy thrust towards him. Several trees fell to the ground as bullets flung around. Barret shifted around and fired towards his opponent. He grunted as he watched the four-legged creature dodge his attacks easily. In the back, Aeris stood helplessly with her hands clutched together. She wished that she could do something, but what could she possibly do? If only she knew her past clearly.

Canine teeth dug into Barret's tough skin. He roared loudly as his gun hand shot out several bullets to the sky. Nanaki gasped and finally released his grip. He quickly hid behind one of the trees to catch his breath. He had no idea what was going on with him. He engaged into a battle all of a sudden without any reasons. Nanaki had a huge hunch that someone was controlling him… but who?

Nanaki cautiously turned to check what Barret was up to. He was nowhere to be seen. Just then, a high-pitched shriek sounded off. Nanaki quickly turned towards the noise. Barret decided that Aeris would be his next target. The girl's neck was being clutched by his huge hand.

"Aeris!" Nanaki yelled.

Barret gripped tighter at that.

Aeris moaned. "R-Red!"

Nanaki quickly made his way towards his friend. However, Barret had already noticed this. He lifted up his machine gun hand and quickly flung it right into the four-legged animal's stomach. That immediately knocked the breath out of him. Nanaki fell to the ground after that.

"RED!" Aeris yelled. "Please get up!"

Barret narrowed his pitch black eyes. He tightened his grip once more, causing Aeris' whole body to vanish for a mere second.

'… I-if this keeps up… then I'll be… n-no! I'm…' Aeris closed her eyes tightly. She dug her nails into Barret's fist and yelled at the top of her lungs, "I'M NOT READY!"

A bright flash of light suddenly appeared. Barret groaned, releasing his grip on Aeris. Aeris quickly backed away from him as she stared down at Nanaki. The light was coming from his necklace. Nanaki's appearance suddenly changed from animal to human. His red hair revealed his now bright red eyes. The bright light suddenly dimmed as Nanaki's other form was finally revealed. He was wearing something similar to medieval clothing.

Human Nanaki clutched his fists together and thrusted towards Barret. Barret lifted his gun at him and fired at will. However, his attacks completely missed the target. Nanaki leaped over Barret and stood in front of Aeris. The last thing he wanted was to have his friend hurt… especially Barret. He couldn't attack his friend… so, what was there to do?

"R-Red? Why… why are you… human?" Aeris clenched her fists close to her chest. "Are you even… Red anymore?"

Nanaki turned his head, revealing a smile planted on his face. "Of course. I will never change."

No reaction came from Barret. His gun hand was still aimed towards his opponent, but he had no desire to attack anymore. His arm shook around, sending a cold chill through his whole body. Nanaki cautiously arched his shoulders up at that.

'Barret,' he said to himself. 'I don't know what to do…'

"Here we stand, let the eyes of darkness return …" 

Nanaki turned around at that. A white glow dimmed on and off as it surrounded Aeris' body. Her eyes were closed. As she clasped her hands close above her chest, she continued her chants.

"Let your soul create a path to good and release the evil from within. AWAKEN!"

At that, a black glow suddenly appeared around Barret. The darkness of his eyes slowly disappeared as the black glow did as well.

"What is this!" a deep voice echoed suddenly.

"That voice… sounds so familiar…" Nanaki wondered to himself. He shook that thought out and kneeled next to Aeris who had been unconscious after what happened. "Aeris! Wake up!"

"Ugh… R…Red?" Barret moaned in the back.

"…you're… alright…"

"Damn… no I'm not…"

Nanaki smiled at that, but a frown took over. He brushed away Aeris' hair on her forehead.

"Barret," Nanaki whispered.

"What…" He finally looked up. His eyes widened as Nanaki revealed Aeris to him. "…th-that's…"

"…yes."

"Damn! Where the heck did you…?"

"Barret…" Nanaki bit his lip and bowed his head. "She… can't remember anything. Her memory of us… her past… everything. They're… gone."

Barret narrowed his eyes at that. "So, her too, huh?"

"W-What?"

Barret walked towards Aeris and kneeled down next to her. "I met up with Wedge, Biggs, and Jessie earlier. She couldn't remember anything either."

"…I'm sorry."

"No…. They said Myrna went through this forest but… I guess she isn't here anymore. Her powers… must have been absorbed through the Lifestream. She's gone now."

They remained silent at that.

"One question," Nanaki broke the silence. "…why haven't we been absorbed yet?"

"…I don't know 'bout Aeris, but… since we don't belong here, the Lifestream didn't want to accept us, or somethin' like that."

"Maybe…"

"So," Barret said, as he lifted Aeris up. "Where were you headin'?"

"O-oh… we were going to search for our friends. The only way is to go through this forest."

The other nodded. "Alright. Let's move!"

As they finally resumed their trip through the forest, Nanaki couldn't help but wonder about before. What exactly was Aeris doing? She never exactly chanted such foreign words before. Was that… her new powers for this world or something? Did she help Barret snap back to reality? With these questions floating inside Nanaki's head, the only thing he could do now is wait it out. Hopefully, she'll regain her memories back soon.

* * *

"DAMN THEM!" Hojo slammed his fist hard against the tube Yuffie had been resting in. He growled loudly, thinking about how his plan failed so easily. He even went over the plans, specifically stating that there couldn't possibly be a way to interfere with it.

'How… is this possible? How were they able to-'

"Hojo," Gast said, entering the room Hojo had been in. "It appears the signal has been interfered with."

"I know that already, goddammit!"

"…Aeris…"

"…I want her destroyed."

"W-What?"

Hojo placed his hands behind his back and turned to Gast. "I want her destroyed! I want the Lifestream to take her away, offer her useless power to the Other World already!"

"It… It can't work that way, sir! Besides… the Lifestream tried to take her away before…"

"And?"

"…it… wouldn't accept her."

"That's impossible. The Lifestream should accept everyone's power. What makes her so special then?"

Gast frowned and turned away. "I'm not sure. I just wonder… when it will be our turn. I've been here for far too long… and I wasn't offered once…"

Hojo furrowed his eyebrow at that. Nothing was impossible for him. Soon, he would find a way to fix that little problem. He shrugged at the thought and stared at Yuffie. Just the thought of his new experiment made a grin appear on his face.

"It's only a matter of time before I finally release her out into the open."

"What… exactly are you going to use her for?"

"If you were paying attention, I said I was going to use this as a little… test subject. I feel this will be one of my greatest experiments ever."

Yuffie's limbs twitched at that. Although she couldn't figure out what was happening, she could tell that it's only a matter of time before she is set to destroy her friends.

'…Nanaki…'

* * *

"Ahhh… this feels good…"

Cid happily dipped both of his hands in a lake. He twitched at the cold sensation. Several bright ripples formed at that. He grinned at the sight and leaned back. It was already evening, but the sun was still at its brightest. Cid turned to where Vincent had been resting. He sighed, noticing that he was in the same exact position ever since they arrived. It had only been several hours since they arrived in the Lifestream. Cid had been taking it pretty easy while Vincent seemed troubled. He had a feeling what was wrong with him, however.

"Hey, Vin. Quit getting lost in your thoughts and relax already. I haven't seen you sit down once. Your legs are gonna fall off if you don't."

Vincent turned his head to the side. "…are we truly… inside the Lifestream?"

"Tch. Yes, for the bajillionth time. Look, I'm sure we'll find the others soon enough. But, right now, we should be worrying about where to settle in for tonight.

"Cid," Vincent said, finally turning to face his friend. "Do you think…"

Cid lifted an eyebrow at that. "I… what?"

"…nevermind."

"Tch! Whatever. I'm gonna look for something to chow down on. You just stay here and… be all Vincenty or something! You're gettin' me so worried, I swear I felt wrinkles on my forehead…"

As Cid got up to his feet he made his way around the lake. Vincent watched his friend disappear through the tall grass. He squinted as the bright reflection of the lake blinded him. He stood up and examined his surroundings. There wasn't much to see. However, off in the distance there appeared to be a small village. Vincent sighed to himself. They could have rested there, but he guessed Cid never even noticed.

"HEY! VIN!"

Vincent turned to where Cid was now. His arms were waving like crazy. Vincent shrugged and decided to help Cid at whatever he found.

Once he arrived, he kneeled down next to him.

"What's the matter?"

"Look," Cid revealed a woman's body from underneath the tall grass. "I tried waking her up, but she never responded. Do you think she's… dead?"

Vincent leaned closer. "I don't believe people can die when they're already inside the Lifestream."

"Hn. Good point."

"… we should take her to that village over the hill."

"Yeah, good idea." Cid lifted the woman off from the ground. "Quite small though."

Vincent narrowed his eyes at him. "Wait… you noticed it before?"

"Hell yeah, I was just waiting for you to say something. Man, you're so slow."

"…"

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Thank you so much for bringing my Merri back." A young man bowed down. "I've been worried sick about her."

"Aha! It was no problemo! My hawk eyes never fail!" Cid grinned. "Anytime!"

Vincent bowed his head. "It was no trouble. She should be fine. We didn't see any signs of injuries."

The girl's eyes fluttered open. She tugged on the blankets and looked around. The expression on her face was completely blank. The man kneeled next to Merri and clutched her hands into his.

"Merri! Are you alright?"

"…who… are you?"

"…W-What? It's me! You're brother, Tuck!"

"…brother?"

"Merri…"

Cid lifted and eyebrow at that. "Okay… what's going on here?"

Tuck stood up with a frown. "Her memories are wiped away… just like all the young girls in this village."

"Care to explain?" Vincent asked in a deep voice.

"I'm not quite sure why this is happening. Just recently, all the girls in the village suddenly forgot their memories. I don't know why it's targeted to only them. I heard rumors saying something about an evil person with the technology to practically take over this whole Lifestream. I fear that if that happens, our powers will never help the Other World stay alive."

"Other world?" Cid wondered.

The man nodded. "Yes. Lately, there haven't been many offerings given to it yet. I don't know what's going on."

Vincent tilted his head. "Maybe they're somehow connected to the Lifestream. Most likely their forgotten memories are preventing the Lifestream from receiving any offerings."

Tuck shrugged. "I don't know." He gently brushed his little sister's pale cheek. "I'm just glad she's alright…"

"Has Merri fully recovered, Tuck?" A woman's voice said behind the door.

"…her memories are lost, Raine. Just like all the others."

"Oh dear!" The door suddenly flung open. A young woman with long brown hair tied in a ponytail came rushing in. "Merri!"

"Whoaho, she looks hot." Cid grinned.

Vincent widened his eyes and stood up.

"LUCRECIA!"

* * *

"Did you guys find anything yet?"

"Not yet, sir."

"Same here, Reno."

He sighed. "Fine. I'll get back to you later." He turned off his cellphone at that. "Damnit… how did I ever get stuck with _this_ path? These stupid worms are getting in my way!"

Reno whacked his flashlight hard against the cave walls. The worms started to fall to the ground at that. He grunted and continued walking through the dark cave. He had a feeling that this wasn't going to be an easy trip. Not because of the glowworms, but because he sensed something stronger within. He narrowed his bright blue eyes and punched in a button on his cellphone. Rude and Elena answered.

"Yes, sir!" Elena responded happily.

Reno grunted. "How can you be so happy now!"

"Sir," Rude spoke. "There appears to be a door coming up in my path."

"Take it. It'll probably lead to one of us or something."

"Yes, sir."

Elena shrieked through the phone. Reno twitched at that.

"The hell is wrong!… Elena?"

Her scream continued.

"O-Oh… no…"

"What! Rude? What is it!"

"…B-Bodies…"

"Wha?"

Suddenly, Reno stepped on something soft. He aimed his flashlight towards the ground and gasped.

"G-God…"

* * *

A/N: End of chapter six! Originally, the words in italics was supposed to be in German/Latin but… eehh… I don't trust those translation sites. I don't take the language obviously. (cough) I'll try to work on chapter 7 earlier. (sigh) Hope you liked and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	7. Connections

A/N: Hehe, I _did_ say I was going to work on chapter seven earlier. (thumbs up) Wow, I wrote so much, I can't feel my fingers anymore.

Thankies for reviewing you two! Hope you'll enjoy reading this chapter!

Disclaimer: I read some of my old disclaimers from BTTHY and… I decided to bring back Aeris and Cait Sith!

Cait: Ah! You really missed us!  
Author: Uh… sure I did.  
Aeris: Aw… where are the others?  
Author: Uh… they're eh… stuck. In the… bathroom.  
Aeris: …you locked them in there?  
Author: (shrugs) Yeah, sure why not.  
Cait: …can I hug you?  
Author: …no.  
Aeris: FF7 doesn't belong to Miss Author!

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Seven

Connections  
_"Just a big guess." -Vincent_

Professor Gast watched as Yuffie's appearance gradually changed. Since her body had been contaminated with the green liquid for some time, it caused some abnormal growth to occur. Small gray spikes emerged out from within Yuffie's back. Her whole body made no reaction to it, as she was now unconscious. Her green fur was now a solid black color with needle-like tips on the ends of them.

Gast quickly took notes as he was observing the experiment. And as he did, his head shook side to side. Of all the experiments he had been working with in the past, he admitted that this was far too much. Ever since he arrived in the Lifestream a long time ago, he'd think that his science life was over. But, when Hojo finally made an appearance, he still had the desire to continue his experimentations. Gast wondered what he could possibly do anymore. The only way to find out… was to be introduced to his science life once again. So far, Hojo's intentions were to make all Lifestream civilians suffer under his control. His brain washing experiment had failed already, and he was obsessed in destroying Gast's daughter, Aeris. The only question that hasn't been answered was… 'why?' Why would Hojo to go such lengths just to see people suffer? However, Gast would never ask why. Such a question was far too suspicious and he felt that Hojo didn't exactly gain full trust in his colleague. Gast shook his thoughts away and continued observing the creature.

'I don't want to see people suffer… especially in the Lifestream. Everyone serves an important purpose here…' he thought to himself.

Just then, the doors behind him suddenly opened. Hojo entered with several needles wrapped in a brown paper bag. He set them down on his worktable and made his way to his colleague. Hojo ran his finger against the cold tube from side to side.

"Has stage one completed its duties?" he said peering over to Gast's clipboard.

Gast scribbled in more notes and answered, "Almost completed, Professor. There's one more change yet to be conducted."

"Ho? I can see that my specimen has completely changed appearances."

"But, before we continue, she must have a cross-shaped slit on both eyes."

Hojo made a face then turned to the test tube. He tapped his finger several times. When the creature made no reaction, Hojo grunted and tapped louder.

"Damnit. Her eyes _must_ be open for the chemicals to make contact to them." He paused and scooted over to his work desk. After filling one of the needles with red liquid, he scooted back to Gast and handed it to him. Gast blinked and stared at his colleague.

"Sir, this is-"

"Do it."

Gast bowed his head and slowly made his way around the tube. A small portal appeared to place the needle in. He hesitated for a moment.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to Yuffie. "If I don't do this, I will never truly know what other things Hojo intends to do with this Lifestream. As soon as stage three commences, I'll save you."

He bowed his head in shame and shoved the needle straight into the portal. Red liquid suddenly appeared inside the test tube, causing Yuffie's body to shake around like crazy. Hojo grinned with pleasure as he watched his specimen suffer. As soon as Gast made his way back to Hojo, Yuffie's eyes were wide open. They were completely red with a black cross-shaped slit in both of them. Hojo patted his colleague's back and turned away from him.

"Commence stage two."

"Yes… sir."

"In the meantime, I will be having fun with my little machine again. It just so happens that _she_ is trying to interfere with my plans."

After Hojo left the room, Gast stared up at Yuffie with a sad face on.

"Soon… I promise."

* * *

"H-How did you know my name?" the woman nervously asked Vincent. She backed away from him as he took a step forward. 

"Just you wait a minute!" Tuck stood up and blocked 'Raine' from Vincent's view. "Who do you think you are? Have you been stalking Raine?"

Vincent stared at Tuck, then to Lucrecia. He couldn't believe it. It had been a long time since his eyes gazed upon his first love. He was so shocked, he couldn't even answer Tuck's simple question. Vincent took another step forward and stretched his arm to Lucrecia.

"…Lucrecia…"

"Alright, alright," Cid finally said, pulling Vincent back. "I dunno what's going on, but it's pretty obvious that Vincent has met this chick before. 'Em I right?"

Tuck swiped his hand to his side. "That's nonsense! You couldn't have met her! She came to this Lifestream a very long time ago!"

"T-That's right!" 'Raine' quickly responded. "I-I don't know you at all!"

Vincent's arm slowly dropped to his side at that. 'You… don't remember me… at all…?' His fists clenched tightly. "Have her memories-"

"That's enough! I would like all of you to leave at once!" Tuck opened the door and gestured for them to exit.

Cid glanced at Vincent for a moment and sighed. "C'mon. No point in staying," he nodded and made his way out of the room.

Before Vincent exited out, 'Lucrecia' stood up and stared into his dark red eyes. The man blinked once and finally left the room. Tuck sighed in relief.

"What was _that_ about, Raine?… uh… Raine?"

'Raine' stopped in front of the door and turned around. She smiled as her eyes glowed a strange green color.

"Merri… she should be fine now."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Uhm… gil?"

"Yeah, don't we need to pay to stay or something?"

"N-No sir. We don't charge… at all."

"Really!" Cid jangled the gil in his pocket and turned to Vincent. "You hear that, Vin? A free stay! Isn't that sweet?"

Vincent didn't respond to that. He was still lost in his thoughts about his encounter with Lucrecia. The first thing that popped into his mind was, 'she lost her memories… just like all the others.' However, if her memories _were_ lost, then she wouldn't even remember her real name, right? Perhaps only some of her memories were forgotten. Vincent rubbed his head at such confusing thoughts. He had to see her again… alone.

"Whoo hoo, wakey wakey, lover boy," the pilot waved his hand in front of his friend's face. "I'm gonna open our room now."

Vincent blinked out of his thoughts. He never even realized that they already arrived to their room. "I'm sorry."

After Cid managed to open the door, he immediately rushed in and collapsed on the soft bed. He moaned in delight and soon found himself in dreamland. Vincent slowly entered and closed the door behind him. He noticed that the room only had a single bed. Luckily, there was a place near the window where he could rest. With a sigh of relief, he removed his mantle and hung it over a chair. It was unusually hot in the room. He was surprised that Cid slept so soundly with the blankets wrapped around him. Vincent walked towards the bathroom and tried opening it. However, the doorknob wouldn't budge. He tried shaking it again, but that's when he heard something behind the door. Someone was talking… and it sounded like a woman! The man paused and gently knocked on the door. That's when she stopped.

"Is someone in there?" Vincent asked.

She sighed. "I am, Papa. I'll be done in a few minutes."

'Papa…?' Vincent turned his head to Cid. "Cid, I think we got the wrong room."

The other man flinched at that and finally woke up. "W-What? How could I? The guy said that this room was definitely ours."

"Well, I think you got it wrong, Cid. Someone's already in here."

The woman inside gasped and quickly opened the door. Vincent jumped back in shock and looked away with a red face on.

"Cid! Vincent!"

"T-Tifa?"

Cid rose up from his bed like a zombie. "Tifa?

Tifa smiled and wrapped her arms around Vincent's neck. "Omigosh! I'm so glad you guys are here!"

The door to the room suddenly opened. Tifa's papa was seen holding some food in his hands. He blinked a few times before asking,

"…honey… why're you hugging a strange man… with a towel wrapped around you?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Papa! These are my friends I've been talking to you about. This is Vincent and Cid."

Tifa's father bowed down. "Pleased to meet you. You gave me quite a shock at first."

"Ehe, well… I thought this room was empty…" Cid blushed. "Never expected to find Tifa so soon."

"So," Vincent started. "How did you come across this town, Tifa?"

Tifa took a sip of her drink then answered, "Well, when I arrived here, I was already in this room. This is where I met my Papa for the first time in a very long time. I was so happy…" She hugged her papa at that. "So, how did _you_ guys find this place?"

"We weren't far away from here. "

"I see…"

"Hey, where's spiky hair?" Cid interrupted.

Tifa frowned and shook her head. "I'm not sure. I wanted to look but Papa kept telling me I shouldn't."

He furrowed his eyebrows and nodded. "That's right! It's too dangerous out there! What if you lose your memories like the other girls in this village?"

"But! He's my friend! He could be in trouble right now! I've been through much more dangerous things than this! Please let me go!"

Outside of the Inn they were staying at, Vincent decided to get some fresh air. The thought of finding his friends was hard enough, let alone his little encounter with Lucrecia. He observed all the villagers that had happy faces on. Even some the women seemed to be quite happy. Why would they be? They lost their memories…

"Wondering about the girls, hm?"

Vincent quickly turned around. It has Lucrecia. He looked away and responded, "Yes. Why would they… be so happy? I would think they would be… depressed."

The woman leaned forward and smiled. "What would your reaction be if I told you that… I helped them regain their memories?"

"…w…what?"

"I don't understand why either, but… I can help them. Just by being near them, they somehow remember everything."

"So that girl…"

"Yep. Her memories have returned. But in exchange… bits of my memory must be taken away. So, that's why some of the women here seem a little depressed and confused. I really want to help them… but… I won't be able to if I don't have any memories to give up. The only memories I have are my name, my occupation and… Hojo."

Vincent turned to face the woman. "Lucrecia, do you…" he paused. Now wasn't the time to be asking something that she obviously couldn't remember. He put his thought aside and asked something else. "…do you know who is behind this act?"

Lucrecia lifted her head to the man. "I have a feeling… that it's Hojo. Before he came, everything was normal. All the women had their memories. But, ever since he arrived, all the women started to forget their memories. And not just here, but other places as well. I only found out about my powers a week after the incident. I was surprised that _my_ memories weren't wiped out."

"Maybe because… you are still connected with Hojo. You were with him a long time ago."

"… I know. But… how do you know?"

Vincent paused. He couldn't reveal his true feelings for her. It would only send pains straight to his heart. He was just glad that he could see her for a little while. She was all right. He placed his hands on Lucrecia's shoulders and smiled.

"Just a big guess."

She smiled and secretly placed her necklace inside Vincent's pocket. Something inside told her that it would serve a purpose someday. She just hoped that he would know how to use it when the time was right.

"Heeeey, Vin!"

The two couple turned around at Cid's annoying voice. He and Tifa came rushing towards them, with 'Papa' on their tail.

"Papa says that I can look for Cloud… after finally convincing him." Tifa fake-coughed at that.

"Please take good care of her." Tifa's Papa said with a bow.

Vincent turned to Lucrecia at that. "I better go now."

She smiled. "Okay. Please be safe."

"…you too, Lucrecia. It was nice meeting you."

* * *

"Finally we're out! Man, that trip took longer than I thought. Damn." 

Barret stretched his arms out and groaned. Nanaki, who was now carrying Aeris, gently placed her on the ground. He observed his surroundings, finding nothing but empty space. He tugged his blue vest and tapped his brown leather boots. He had no idea why he was wearing such silly clothing, but at least it was better than nothing. Nanaki stared up at the dark sky and frowned.

"No stars… no moon."

"R…Red?"

He turned to the voice. "Aeris!"

Aeris slowly sat up and rubbed her head. "Ugn… my head hurts…"

"How are you feelin'?" Barret asked cautiously. He didn't want to surprise Aeris with the former-enemy-being-all-friendly-now. She turned to him and stared into his dark eyes. A smile finally formed on her face.

"Barret! You're alright!"

He blinked. "Y-You remember me?"

"Of course I do! Red told me so much about you!"

Barret smiled nervously and gave Nanaki a look. "Oh… really."

Nanaki grinned. "She said she wanted to know about you. This is one step for her in remembering her friends. Barret, let's try our best."

The man nodded and turned to Aeris who was confused at the moment. "Awight then. Since Red has told you allllll about me, let's talk about him! And… why he's… a human right now."

Aeris smiled at that. "Okay!"

"But first!… let's head for my friend's place. We'll rest there for tonight."

* * *

"AHH! EEE! TH-THERE'RE BODIES! T-TWO OF THEM!" 

"God! Calm down already, Elena!" Reno growled at her. "And what was up before?"

"I-I don't know! I fell down and… I'm wet!"

"So you wet your panties, big deal."

"RENO!"

Rude cleared his throat. "Sir, these bodies are… the guys from AVALANCHE."

"I know. I got three bodies here. The pilot, the vampire, and the big guy." The redhead kneeled down and poked them with his nightstick. "They're dead."

"I don't think so. They're still breathing."

"Whhaaaat?"

Elena shrieked. "Ew, ew ew… I don't want to be here anymore! It's so freaky!"

"Be a man, Elena!"

"But I'm a woman!" she whined. "Besides, these two are glowing a weird color.

"Yours too?" Rude responded. "How about you, Reno?"

"Yeah… yeah they are, now that you mentioned it. It's all green and really… disgusting-looking." He lifted himself up and looked around. He began to wonder how they ended up in that state. There weren't any signs of enemies or anything dangerous… but there was Sephiroth. Reno lifted his cellphone to his ear. "Alright, look for any doors or anything that can lead us deeper to the cave."

"What!" Elena exclaimed. "W-Why do we wanna do that?"

"Yes, I checked. There's nowhere to go from h-"

"…what? Rude! Speak up!"

"I… break… can't… you…" Elene's voice completely went static at that.

Reno shook his cellphone around. They were losing connection all of a sudden. He grunted and stuck his cell back into his jacket. There was something… or someone trying to interfere with their connection.

"Show yourself!" he yelled in the dark.

"…is that you, Reno?" a voice squeaked. A small black cat with a crown made its way to him. It saluted with a big small on its face. "Glad I found you!"

The Turk grunted and slapped his face. "Cait Sith… no… Reeve."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter seven! (stretches face) I'm sorry the Nanaki part was incredibly short. I got so into the Vincent and Lucrecia reunion thing, I didn't really concentrate on the Nanaki part. I'm sorry! At least I mentioned them! Next chapter, I'll concentrate more on them and… possibly where the heck Cloud is. Anyways! Hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	8. Top to Bottom

A/N: Welcome to chapter eight! In this chapter, there's… I believe one part in here where I refer back to my other story _Human Years_. It's in parenthesis so… if you don't believe me, you can check it out for yourself. Hehe.

Thanks for reviewing you two! I really appreciate it! (hands everyone cookie)

Disclaimer:

Author: Something just occurred to me… I never put Sephiroth in my disclaimers!  
Sephiroth: (jumps in all crazy-like and slices random things in half) RAWRISHALTSLICEYOUUP!  
Author: …oh. No wonder.  
Cloud: What about me!  
Tifa: And me!  
Reno: Me too!  
Author: SHUSH IT! YOU GUYS ARE STILL STUCK IN THE BATHROOM!  
Cloud: And Sephiroth?  
Author: …he's... uh…(makes a face)  
Sephiroth: (copies)  
Author: …aaannnnywaaaay… FF7 doesn't belong to me…

**Reveal Your True Eyes**  
Chapter Eight

Top to Bottom  
_"Hey, I expect you out of here as soon as you can." -Dyne_

There was a flash of light. Two figures were seen walking around a huge test tube. The creature inside had eyes that glowed as bright as the firey depths of hell. The creature also had a necklace that jangled around its neck. Another huge flash of light appeared, only this time, the creature was set lose and it thrusted towards Nanaki without any hesitation. His eyes widened as he stared into the creature's abnormal eyes. A picture of Yuffie was seen, banging her fists behind the creature's eyes. The shrill cry of 'Nanaki' echoed throughout his ears as his necklace exploded into bright light. The sound of a sword slicing through followed after as blood splattered everywhere.

Nanaki woke up from his dream completely startled. His form had now changed from human to beast. His tongue hung out from his mouth as he began to pant like crazy. That dream felt so real to him. It was like he was actually inside, witnessing such an event before his very eyes. (he actually has one, but you get the idea.) He stopped panting and thought back to his dream. Now that he thought of it, he could have sworn he saw Yuffie inside that beast's eyes. Nanaki gasped and hopped out of the bed. He just had to tell someone about this.

The sound of his footsteps creaked inside the small house. It was still in the middle of the night and everyone was obviously sleeping, however, he had to tell someone about this. It had been a while since he had a dream like this before, way back when he changed into a human for the first time. It was a dream about him and Yuffie… and it came true. (Chap. 3, Human Years) Since then, he took his dreams quite seriously, no matter what the situation it was.

One of the doors opened slowly as he passed by. He peeked in, only to spot Aeris sitting up on her bed. Nanaki's head peeked inside her room. He cleared his throat, making Aeris switch her attention to Nanaki. A smile appeared on her face as she gestured for him to enter. The creature sat next to the bed.

"Is something the matter, Red?" Aeris asked.

He bowed his head. "There is. You might think this is weird, but… I think I had another premonition dream. I haven't had one in a while, but I take every dream seriously." Aeris nodded her head at that and Nanaki continued. "Well, I don't really recall the whole dream, but I _do _remember seeing a black creature that looked like me… and Yuffie was trapped within it. I have a really bad feeling that she could be in serious trouble," his paw stomped on the floor loudly. His shoulders were shaking. "I… I hope that she's…"

Aeris climbed out of her bed and kneeled next to him. She gave him a warm embrace that stopped Nanaki from shaking.

"It's alright, Red. Don't you worry…" she smiled. "We'll find her together."

"Thank you… Aeris."

Her smile faded away at that. She wanted to remember her past so badly. So far, she has only met Barret, however, she vaguely remembers what he was like before. From the way he looked, she started to wonder how they even met. Such a big guy hanging around such small people as herself. A small smile appeared at that. She just hoped that everything would come back to her.

Their embrace finally ended as Nanaki turned towards the door. He bowed his head before he turned the corner. Aeris walked towards the window and stared out into the darkness. Her eyes gazed upon the dark sky that revealed small parts of the Lifestream flowing through. She then began to think… if it was possible to see the Other World again.

Just then, gunshots were heard off in the distance. An orange flare of light followed after. Aeris opened the windows at that and leaned forward to get a better view. Her eyes widened as she spotted Barret and another figure shooting each other. It wasn't one of his friends she met earlier so… who could it be? Two other figures appeared from inside the house.

Biggs tried pulling Barret back but he resisted and continued to shoot at his opponent. Jessie watched in the back, clenching her small fists to her sides. She was the first to hear the gunshots. Biggs and Wedge quickly investigated the sound and found Barret and his old friend, Dyne, fighting each other.

"Barret!" Wedge yelled. "Stop this already!"

Barret dodged two bullets aiming for his head. "Not now! 'sides, _he_ was the one who started it!"

Dyne ceased his fire and narrowed his eyes. "I have the right to! Why did you have to die, NOW? What's gonna happen to Marlene! You promised you would protect her forever!"

"Hey! It's not like I planned to come here! I'll find a way to get out of this place!"

"That's impossible! Once you're in here, there is no way out!" Dyne stepped back and fired at will.

Barret moved his gun arm in front of his face as the bullets hit against it. "I told you before! I don't belong here!"

"That's it!" Dyne swung his gun arm to his side and thrust forward. "DIE!"

Aeris stepped away from the window with her eyes wide open. 'D-Die?' she said to herself. 'Now that I think about it… I wonder how…'

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" a new voice yelled out.

Aeris jumped back in shock at that. She leaned towards the window and smiled. "Red!"

Barret and Dyne's punches to the stomach stopped at Red's voice. Their attention was turned to him as he made his way to the old friends. His narrowed his eyes and growled at them.

"Now's not the time to be fighting! I may not be an expert when it comes to the Lifestream, but we could cause some serious damage if you guys were 'killed'. Consider what would happen to the 'Other World'."

The two friends grunted at that and pulled their fists away from each other. They turned to face each other and, without saying a word, they walked away. Nanaki watched Dyne enter another house and Barret enter Biggs' house. He sighed at that. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie made their way to him.

"Nice going there," Biggs said. "Wish I knew how to stop them like that."

Nanaki shrugged his shoulders. "I've had my experience. I know that Dyne cares for Barret… he entrusted his own daughter to him to take care of. He didn't really want him to 'die' yet."

Jessie frowned and turned to Wedge. "So Dyne's daughter is now… Barret's daughter?"

He nodded. "I believe so. We even met her."

"Really?" she paused for a while and smiled. "I feel like I did…"

Biggs patted his friend's shoulders. "Well then, it's still late. We should be hitting the hay til morning," he turned to Nanaki. "You coming?"

Nanaki shook his head. "No. I think I'll stay up for a while."

"Suit yourself."

As they left, Nanaki turned and gazed into the sky. Like before, no stars occupied the sky whatsoever. However, the flow of the Lifestream made it seem like there were some. Its bright glow dimmed on and off, making Nanaki turn away from it. It was beautiful, but now wasn't the time to cherish such a moment. His dream was still worrying him. Maybe it wasn't just Yuffie that was in trouble… it could be his friends. He shook such horrible thoughts out. No, he was going to find them… and they were going to be alright.

"Mind if I join you?"

Nanaki turned around and nodded. Aeris sat next to him and pulled her legs up to her chest. She leaned forward with a frown on her face.

"That dream is still bothering you, right?"

"… yeah. But I still have hope that I'll save my friends. And then, we can have a little reunion party or something," Nanaki grinned at that. "Your memories will come back to you easy!"

Aeris nodded. "I do hope so," she lifted her head and gazed into the sky. Actually, she should be the one asking herself that. Ever since she met Nanaki, she had been having a lot of weird dreams. She couldn't recall everything exactly, but she remembered seeing a big sword. It was held by a shadowy figure, and it seemed like the figure was about to slice her. The next thing she knew, everything was black.

"Aeris? Are you alright?"

She gasped and turned to Nanaki. "Yes. I'm sorry. I was just daydreaming," she lied. Something deep inside told her not to tell anyone about this. "So, shall we rest up now?"

Nanaki nodded and stood up. "Yes. We have a long journey ahead of us."

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The next day, Nanaki and company began to discuss their travels. Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie pointed out that the mountain path was the best place to go. However, there were risks involved. Those who travel through the path will get lost forever. Most likely the Lifestream would take their lost souls as an offering and they would disappear forever. Nanaki narrowed his eyes at that. He wasn't sure which way was the right way, but he felt that going through the path was the best option. Biggs leaned against the wall.

"I don't know much of the geography of the Lifestream, but I think after you pass through the mountain, there should be a cave you can enter. After that, I'm not sure."

"The journey is long," Wedge pointed out. "So don't rush through to reach your friends. I'm sure there will be a couple of dangerous encounters."

Barret lifted his gun arm in the air. "Damn that! I'm ready for anythin'!"

"Heh, lively as ever, aye?"

Nanaki nodded. "Anything else we need to know?"

"That's pretty much it," Jessie stroked Nanaki's head. "Just be careful."

"Yeah, you guys too," Barret patted his hand on Jessie's head. "Maybe on the way, we'll find out who's been messing with my friend's memories."

She smiled. "Thanks, Barret."

"Barret."

Everyone turned at that. Dyne was seen leaning against a wall. He turned and threw a brown bag to Barret. He eyed his friend and opened it. It revealed a couple of mountain gear and other useful items for their travels. Barret and Dyne stared at each other before exchanging grins.

"Hey, I expect you out of here as soon as you can," Dyne said.

Barret nodded. "I'll be out of here before you know it."

After saying their final goodbyes, the three travelers were off. They had a feeling that things would change from impossible to possible in no time.

* * *

"Urg… did you bring any of that food your pops brought?"

"Just a bag of chips and-"

Cid peered over Tifa's shoulder. A stream of drool poured out from his mouth. Tifa gave him a look and handed the food over. She couldn't have brought all the food her papa got. What would _he_ have then? She lifted and eyebrow and tried ignoring the fact that Cid was still peering over her shoulder.

Before the three left, Lucrecia had warned them of the dangers that may lie ahead. She mentioned a village nearby an old cave. So, seeing that that was their only option, they headed northeast for the village. They haven't encountered anything out of the ordinary, just wild flowers growing in a meadow. Tifa gestured for the boys to take a little rest while she gathered a few flowers to bring.

"I heard that these kinds of flowers could help soothe a person's body."

Cid shoved another potato chip in his mouth. "Oh really? And when is that really going to help? This place is filled with nothing but souls. Hell, we're souls even!"

Tifa froze at that. "Oh yeah… I forgot…"

"Easily mistaken," Vincent finally said. "The Lifestream can play tricks in our mind if we're not careful. _I_ even forgotten that everything we see here are just souls."

"…I hope we find Cloud and the guys really soon. I'm starting to get worried."

"We shouldn't worry. And we shouldn't rush either. We don't know what lies ahead of us."

Everyone nodded and resumed their journey. No sooner that they left, they arrived at yet another village. They wondered why Lucrecia never mentioned that. Perhaps she had… forgotten? They made their way inside, however, it was practically a ghost town. All the houses, even the trees seemed old and wasted. Not one soul was seen wandering outside. Tifa spotted an old sign lying on the ground. She tilted her head to read the words, 'Welcome to Trensford'.

"It sure's not welcoming," Cid said, nervously crumbling his potato chip bag around. "What the hell happened to this place?"

"It looked like a hurricane passed through here," Tifa added. "Let's have a look around."

Vincent headed towards the house that was closest to him. Before he could turn the doorknob, the door fell inside. He narrowed his eyes at that and peered inside. There was a slight hesitation but he finally stepped inside. The inside of the house was just as beaten up as the house itself. Bits and pieces of furniture had been scattered throughout and it was extremely dusty. Vincent kneeled on the floor and brushed off dust on the broken table. The words, 'The Arm Of The God' was carved on it.

"…is that supposed to mean something?" he shrugged the thought off and continued his search.

"Ew, this place smells like shit."

Cid pinched his nostrils shut as shoved some cloth away from him. He decided to check the house directly next door to where Vincent was searching. Apparently, it had to be a house that smelled unpleasant. He would have checked elsewhere, but he wanted to get this one over with. He flung a pair of dirty white cloth across the room, paused, and continued the action for a while. Sooner or later, he finally discovered a small brown box underneath all that. He quickly snatched it off the ground and observed it. There were unusual markings surrounding the box. Cid shrugged then tried opening it but couldn't.

"…shit!" he moaned. "Oh well. Might as well bring this over to Tif."

Meanwhile, in the back of the village, an extremely old-looking statue was present. It caught Tifa's eye so she decided to check it out. From her observations, the name of the statue was unknown. The plaque was rusty and she couldn't make out the words. However, the statue made a clear picture of what the person looked like. It was a young man wearing robes and he had some kind of fancy crown tied around his forehead. His arms were positioned quite oddly though, like he was holding something in his hand. Tifa stared up at the statue and tilted her head.

"I don't know why… but this statue is quite peculiar…"

"Tif!"

She turned and found Vincent and Cid walking towards her. "So, did you find anything?"

"Sort of," Cid handed the box to Tifa. "It looked a little suspicious."

"…a box?"

"I dunno! I couldn't open it so… why not?"

"I didn't find anything, but I saw the words, 'The Arm Of The God' carved on the furniture."

Tifa lifted an eyebrow. "… 'The Arm Of The God'?" She paused and turned to the statue. It seemed weird, but she had an idea. She stepped on the pedestal and tip toed to the man's left hand. She placed the box on it and jumped to the ground. The two men lifted an eyebrow at that.

"Uhm… why the hell did you do that?" Cid grunted.

Tifa shrugged. "I… don't know. It… seemed right," she stared at the statue and narrowed her eyes. "Don't you feel that something is wrong with this statue?"

"What? Like it's fake or something?"

"Yeah…"

Vincent narrowed his eyes and stepped towards the statue. "It's left arm looks discolored," he wrapped his fist on the arm and pulled it down.

A flash of light suddenly appeared. Cid and Tifa stepped forward. The statue suddenly vanished, leaving behind a huge hole on the ground. It was pitch black so there was no telling how deep it was.

Cid gestured to his friends. "S-Someone… jump in."

"It could be a trap," Vincent pointed out. "Maybe we shouldn't."

"After all that shit? Ha! I don't think so!"

Tifa sighed. "Fine. I'll go in first," and without any hesitations, she jumped in. The two boys stuck their faces in the hole. It was completely silent. Several minutes have gone by and there was no sign of Tifa. Cid and Vincent nodded to each other and finally jumped in. Suddenly, the statue reappeared, but the box in the young man's hand was gone.

The drop to the ground seemed never-ending. Cid and Vincent felt lightheaded as a big gust of wind nearly knocked them unconscious. After a few minutes, they stopped falling, but they never touched the ground. Cid awakened first, only to find himself floating in midair. He stood up and looked around. There were no signs of anything whatsoever. He grunted and shook Vincent's shoulder.

"Vin! Wake up!"

Vincent groaned and slowly opened his eyes. "What… happened?"

"I'm not sure myself. Come on. We havetah look for Tif."

The two men began walking straight into the darkness. They were still a little lightheaded so they helped each other stand. Suddenly, they spotted bright lights just above a hill. As they made their way up, the lights grew brighter and brighter. Tifa was seen standing on top of the hill.

"Tif!" Cid called out. "Damn! Ever heard of staying in one… holy…"

Vincent's eyes widened. "Is this even possible…?"

Tifa turned to them. "It's… an underground city."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter eight! Hm. I only put two different stories in here. (loud gasp) BUT. There is a reason for that. The Hojo and Reno parts, I felt like I was rushing through them. The Turks part is not that long actually. So, they deserve a lil break til the next chapter. Hehe. And, I'm sorry that the Dyne reunion wasn't long or detailed at all. I wanted to make a better one, but that's what came out instead. I will do my best in my other chapters to make up for that. And number 2, I didn't mention Cloud. Eep! Next chapter! I'll add him! (panicks that Cloud will slice Author in half) Anyways! I hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	9. They Arise

A/N: As I was writing this, things got in the way… and I ended up having evil writers block. (groan) I reread it and nothing seemed to be wrong. I was too lazy to use the Spell Check thing so… if you see anything that looks wrong, you can complain about it through e-mail. (sweatdrop)

**Important Note:** Chapter 7… I fixed one part that I stupidly forgot to add in. Yeah, so… if you'd like to check, you may do so. I suggest you do… 'cause this chapter might make you a little confused. (Near the end of the Lucrecia story.)

Thankies for reviewing! Don't wanna give away too much, but I _do_ mention a _little_ part of a certain ex-SOLDIER here. (hint hint) Hope you like this chapter!

Disclaimer:

Aeris: Things are going so slow here in Miss Author's house.  
Vincent: Thank you for unlocking the bathroom door.  
Author: (jumps in, freaking Vincent out) WHOA! How'd you get out!  
Cid: I'M (BEEEEEEEP) FREE!  
Reno: Now… LET'S ATTACK THE AUTHOR!  
(a horde of FF7 characters run out from the bathroom with torches and shovels)  
Author: O.O (runs away) EEEE!  
Cait: (sweatdrop) Uhm… FF7 doesn't belong to Miss Author Poo Poo Head…

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Nine 

They Arise   
"_You… look… just like… me…" -Aeris_

The lights of the city illuminated the dark area, revealing a path right in front of the three travelers. Tifa was the first to step forward, followed by Vincent and Cid. They had no idea what was going on, but they knew they had no choice. Possibly,the path would lead them out of the city… somehow. Suddenly, the path mysteriously disappeared as soon as it entered the city's boundaries. The three gazed at their surroundings. The only thing that seemed strange was that there were no people outside whatsoever. They would have thought it would be loud and lively, but it came out to be the opposite. Tifa stepped forward but was stopped by Vincent.

"I still believe this is some sort of trap," he said flatly. "It's not possible for a huge city like this to be created in such a place."

Cid rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Look, we came this far. We might as well check it out."

"Yes," Tifa agreed. "We might find Cloud somewhere!"

Vincent sighed. "What are the possibilities that we'll find him down here?"

People started emerging out from the tall buildings. However, they made no sound in doing so. They just stopped in the middle of the street and lifted their arms in the air. The air was now filled with deep chants as a mysterious green fog engulfed everything, including Tifa and the rest. No matter how much they struggled to break free, it would only cause their bodies to compress tightly. Suddenly, a flash of light bolted right through, causing the fog to disperse. The three friends fell to the ground at a surprisingly high height. It could have easily broken every bone in their bodies, but they were able to move just fine. Everyone lifted their heads, only to find a bright figure hovering above. It started to descend towards the ground, landing right in front of Tifa. She blinked in confusion and squinted closely. A slight gasp escaped from her mouth.

"C-Cloud!" She quickly got up to her feet and embraced her friend tightly. "Oh! I never thought I would see you again!"

"Whoa, whoa, hey! I-I'm not Cloud!"

Tifa quickly released her grip and stepped back. "W-What? B-But…"

"He's right," Vincent said. "He's not Cloud."

Tifa leaned forward and took another good look at the man. He indeed had spiky hair, and his clothes were similar to Cloud's but slightly different. She tilted her head, noticing that he had long hair that practically reached the middle of his back. Tifa gasped.

"ZACK!"

"There you go!" he grinned.

"I-I thought I'd never see you again…"

"…what do you mean? Have we meet before or something?"

The woman lifted her head and stepped away from the man. She knew it had been several years since they last saw each other, but he couldn't have… lost his memories…? Tifa turned to her friends. They looked confused just as much as she was. Everyone thought that only the girls could lose their memories. Things started to make less sense now. Vincent stepped up next to Tifa and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"…what's the matter?" Zack asked in such a soft tone. "Was it something I said?"

Cid shook his head and replied, "It's not your fault. Ya'see, we just arrived in this here Lifestream and we've been pretty damn confused about everything. After we visited a village, we noticed that only the women lost their memories. But, obviously, you're not a girl so…"

"Whoa, whoa!" Zack waved his hands around. "I understand what you're trying to get at, but… why would you think I lost _my_ memories?"

"We were friends back then, Zack." Zack turned his attention to Tifa. She wiped away the tears escaping from her eyes. "You came to Nibelheim to work on a mission. I was there, too… remember?"

The man blinked. He scratched his chin and gasped. "Oh! You're that fighter girl… with the cowboy getup!"

Tifa cleared her throat. "Yeah."

"I-I'm sorry. I just needed a little reminding."

"Sorry to interrupt," Vincent started. "But, could you please explain the significance of this city? And, why you did what you did before."

Zack nodded. "It was a few years back when I first arrived in this Lifestream. I was wandering around, pretty much studying the geography of the whole stream. Then, like how you guys came in, I discovered this place. However, this city used to be a small town and everyone residing there was just like any plain town I've visited. I decided to hang around there for a while, but 'a while' took longer than I realized. I was trying to find a way out, but I obviously couldn't.

"Then, a few years later, rumors have been spreading that an abnormal soul had just entered the Lifestream. And at some point, a huge earthquake took place, somehow 'causing the village to change into this city. The population soon grew twice as much and everyone started to act very strangely. I didn't want to stick around to find out why, so I decided to observe from afar. And, well… here I am. Still observing."

Cid lifted and eyebrow. "That story… made no shit to me."

Zack shrugged. "Yeah well, that's how it ended up to me. Then, I somehow gained some kind of weird powers. Look," he took a deep breath and reached behind his back. Without flinching, he pulled out a lightning-shaped sword right out from his back. Everyone showed a disgusted face at that. Zack grinned and twirled it around. "Dunno why, but I figured the Lifestream knew that I was good when it comes to swords."

"And… what does that do?" Tifa wondered.

"I guess… I have a duty to protect the people of this city…"

Everyone turned their attention to the city. The people had already disappeared inside the buildings. The four friends had a feeling that they had to do something about this. They cautiously entered the city and examined their surroundings. For a city, it definitely was acting like it was some kind of small town. No sounds… nothing. They soon came across an intersection where they spotted blinking traffic lights. Zack widened his eyes and snapped his head around. The crowd of people began to form once again, and this time, they noticed some intruders. The man took out his sword and brought it to his side.

"You guys find a way out of the city, I'll distract them."

Tifa shook her head and tugged his arm. "No! What if you hurt them!"

"I will never hurt them," he narrowed his eyes at that and handed Tifa a small metal bolt. "I promised them… now, GO!"

At that, the three quickly made their way out of the area. Zack tightened his grip on his sword and jumped in the air. The crowd of people followed the bright light that was now above their heads. That made them turn around. Their arms lifted in the air as deep chants began once again. The green fog suddenly appeared, creating a barrier so Zack couldn't escape out of the city. He grunted and slowly descended to the ground. He returned his sword inside his back and stood his ground. There was no way he could see through this fog… so he just waited… to see what would happen next.

Tifa, Vincent, and Cid were having troubles of their own. Since the fog was so thick, they had no way of telling where they were going. The only things they could see were the blinking traffic lights. So far, they haven't encountered any of the people in the city yet. Tifa, who was leading her friends, started to slack a little. Her head started to feel dizzy from the fog. Vincent and Cid felt this also, but they couldn't stop for anything. Vincent helped Tifa onto Cid's back and quickly followed the blinking traffic lights.

Meanwhile, Zack was in the middle of a fighting frenzy. However, this 'fighting frenzy' was aimed right to him. The crowds of people piled on top of Zack and started beating him up. Zack crouched over and gritted his teeth together. He couldn't move his body anymore. Ever since he began residing in the town, everyone had been friendly with them. And he promised that he would always help them, no matter what. However, Zack knew that deep inside, these weren't the people he knew before…

He clenched his fists and muttered out the words, "I'm sorry." His eyes suddenly turned a bright yellow. A flash of light caused the people to fly back from its impact. Zack slowly stood up to his feet, holding his lightning-shaped sword. He snapped it to his front and thrust forward.

"_Call forth the power of the thunder god, RAMUH!" _

With that, a huge bolt of lightning suddenly appeared above and quickly pummeled the whole city. The people groaned as a mysterious green soul emerged out from their bodies. (souls, technically. Souls come out of souls) Zack watched as memories of his friends started to disappear into the sky. He closed his eyes as an image of Cloud from the past disappeared into the darkness. Glowing tears escaped from his eyes as he opened them.

"I hope they find you… whoever you are…"

Tifa's head suddenly snapped up. Her eyes gazed upon the distant city that was now under attack by several lightning bolts. Vincent and Cid managed to find an exit, but just barely. They were exhausted by the fog's unusual powers and had collapsed on the ground next to Tifa. She slowly stood up and clenched her hand against the metal bolt Zack had given her. It began to glow, and the object in Vincent's pocket began to glow as well. (Chap. 7)

"Zack…"

* * *

Several hours have gone by as Nanaki and the gang continued their journey to find Yuffie and their friends. It had been unusually hot and there were no signs of shade or a town whatsoever. However, they had plenty of supplies to keep moving. No one had made any complaints whatsoever. Everyone knew that something was up. An awkward silence always meant that there were problems bubbling up in their minds.

Nanaki observed his surroundings. There were no signs of mountains in the distance. It felt like they'd been traveling for thousands of years. Biggs' explanation about the mountain made it seem like it was nearby. However, he obviously left the part of it being very very far away out. Nanaki sighed to himself and decided to start a conversation.

"Barret, what kind of things did Dyne give us?"

Barret snapped out from his thoughts and pulled out the brown bag. "Nothing really. Just some mountain gear, food, and…a dagger?"

Aeris looked back. "A dagger?"

The man pulled it out and twirled it around. "Might come in handy," he stopped when the weapon clumsily fell out from his hands. He grinned nervously and quickly stuffed it in the bag. "Shouldn't… really mess around with it…"

"Yes, you shouldn't," Aeris giggled. She turned to Nanaki. "So, do you know when we'll arrive at the mountain?"

He sighed at that. "No… I really wish there was a map or something…"

Suddenly, a small house was seem off in the distance. A smile appeared on everyone's faces. They hurriedly made their way towards it. Perhaps there would be someone there to tell them where exactly the mountain was.

As soon as they arrived, the house appeared much larger up close. It had a peaceful touch to it, however, loud groans could be heard from inside. Aeris perked her head up at that. She felt a strange feeling within her, like she could feel the pain of whoever was groaning. She stepped forward and stopped in front of the door.

"Uhm, Aeris? I think we should leave… I don't think they want us here…" Barret gulped.

She gently knocked on the door. "No… I sense… something really familiar in there."

Nanaki lifted his head to Aeris. 'I think your memories are returning. Let's find out together.'

At that, the door slowly opened. A woman with long brown hair and a pink bow tied around it stepped out. Her green eyes shimmered in the sunlight, practically making everyone gaze right into them. Aeris stepped towards the woman and leaned forward, so that she was eye-to-eye with her.

"You… look… just like… me…"

The woman just took a look at Aeris and smiled.

"…you … do too."

* * *

The test tube began to bubble uncontrollably. Yuffie's demonic form was almost complete. Stage two was still commencing, however. The only thing that was missing was the demon's senses. It still held the power of a humans', but that was about to change. Gast had been watching Hojo from afar. He had the sudden urge to just run in and save Yuffie, but he forced himself to watch. From doing so, he had time to think of how to save her. He still hadn't thought of a plan just yet.

Hojo inserted several needles into the tube as they gently inserted themselves inside the creature. There was no reaction at that. Hojo grinned victoriously and grasped his hands together.

"All is going according to plan," he turned to colleague at that. "You know, I've been picking up some strange readings from the other laboratory, and I cannot tell what it is."

Gast lifted his head. "What kind of readings?"

"I'm not quite sure. At one point, the reading was off the charts! I thought my poor machine was about to explode! Not only that, but I sensed the same readings again, only this time, it was really faint," he turned away at that. "I should see to this. In the meantime, Gast, I want you to complete the last part of Stage two."

The other scientist narrowed his eyes. "Extracting the DNA… correct?"

Hojo waved his hands side-to-side at that. "Yeah, yeah. Just hurry! I can't wait until we extract that human's heart into a demon heart!" He grinned as he exited out of the lab.

Gast sighed and pressed his hand against the test tube. "I almost have a plan… don't you worry. Your heart will remain in tact, forever."

* * *

"Sheesh, Reeve. We've been looking everywhere for you! How the hell did you end up here?"

The cat shrugged and paced around. "Hey, you were the ones that sent me here to eavesdrop on the poor AVALANCHE party."

Reno grunted. "Yeah, well… anyway, do you know what happened to these guys? Why are they dead?"

"Whoa, whoa! Slow down there, pal. First of all, they're not… exactly dead. I'm guessing you met up with Sephiroth, right?"

"Yeah. The hell was he doing here?"

"Well, I overheard him saying that this was part of his 'evil plan'. He unleashed some kind of weird power and ended up sending these guys straight to the Lifestream. However, what he didn't notice was that he left a little bit of their souls in their bodies. I know, because I can sense it!"

The red head nodded his head. "So… what are you trying to say?"

Cait slapped Reno's face and growled. "Hello! We have to help them!"

"And how the hell are we supposed to do that? Get ourselves killed or something?"

"There's a legend about the Lifestream, stating that evil will befall it one hundred years later. However, the 'chosen ones' must find their true powers in order to save and destroy the Lifestream. And, when their powers are combined into one, a path will be formed, leading to this world, or, as they call it in the Lifestream, the Other World."

"And what do we have to do?"

"…to make sure that no one interferes when the souls of the fallen ones return to their normal bodies. Otherwise, there is no way they could escape."

Reno stepped back and tried dialing his cellphone again. No response. "Shit! I have to tell the others! You better follow me, 'cause I ain't gonna carry you, cat!" he turned and made his way out of his path.

Cait frowned and slowly followed the Turks. "If they never return… who's going to save _our _world from destruction…?"

* * *

A/N: End of chapter nine! Erf… Nanaki's part was indeed short once again. I didn't want them to get to the mountain too soon so, why not start a little side quest, aye? Hehe. Oh, and if you haven't figured out where I mention Cloud, it's… uhm… somewhere in the Nanaki story. Aa-nnd… the Hojo part I had to put in there. Their little experiments with poor Yuffie is almost complete. Now… how can Gast save Yuffie? Hm… so many options. Anyways! Hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	10. Just the Beginning

A/N: The only thing to look out for are spelling errors. Yes… I'm still lazy to click that Spell Check button. (praises it) I'm very productive today so… I wanna get a few things done.

Thankies for reviewing! (points) Who is she? WHO IS SHE? Find out in this chapter! (thumbs up)

Disclaimer:

Cait: Ha ha! You lost power two times!  
Author: Be quiet!  
Cait: You lost everything on your computer!  
Author: …everything of YOU.  
Cait: … (cries)  
Nanaki: How about my stuff?  
Author: Aw. I would never lose your stuff. Yuffie's for that matter too.  
Yuffie: Yippeee! I'm not lost!  
Reno: (lifts nightstick up) AH! I FOUND HER!  
(horde of FF7 character's appear)  
Author: EEE! FF7 DOESN'T BELONG TO MEEEE! (runs)

**Reveal Your True Eyes**  
Chapter Ten

Just the Beginning  
_"You… are… Cl-" -Aeris_

Aeris' continued staring into the woman's green eyes. Even though she looked exactly like her, she felt absolutely nothing from her. What she felt before came from inside the house. It was awfully familiar… like, whenever she was with her friends. The woman blinked out of her thoughts and peered over Aeris' shoulder. The two friends stood straight and bowed their heads. She smiled and bowed also.

"Would you like to come inside for a while?"

Nanaki lifted his head. "Uhm… that's very thoughtful of you… but we must be on our way. We're searching for our friends and to find out who's been messing with the Lifestream."

The woman lifted her eyebrows. "I… think you have mistaken. There's nothing wrong with the Lifestream."

"No it ain't!" Barret roared. "Someone's been messing with my friend's mind! They can't remember anything!"

Aeris peeked inside the house and could faintly here the moaning noises. She pointed inside, bringing the woman's attention to her.

"Who… is inside there?" Aeris asked.

"Oh, I found a young man lying motionless outside my house. It looked like he had been fighting something because he had cuts and bruises on his body. He's only been here for a couple of days and he hasn't been healing properly."

"Is it… okay if we see to him?"

"If you'd like."

Aeris bowed her head and quickly entered the house. Nanaki and Barret shrugged their shoulders and followed after. As soon as they stepped up to the porch, a sudden impact caused them to fly backwards. Nanaki's necklace dimmed a red color as he slowly lifted his head up. The woman placed her hands on the porch as a stream of blue aura steamed out from them. She grinned and turned away from them.

"What's the meaning of this!" Nanaki growled weakly.

"I do not want you to interfere. This could possibly bring back her memories."

'W-What?'

Inside the house, the rickety floor creaked louder as Aeris slowly made her way around. She sensed something happening outside, but she was mostly interested in what she felt before. The distant moaning could be heard from upstairs. Such an eerie noise brought chills up the girl's back. He sounded in pain, indeed. As she climbed up the stairs, she immediately entered a rather small room. The sound came from the big lump on the bed across the room. Before she could move, images began to appear before her eyes. Images of people, including Nanaki, Barret, and the woman. Aeris grabbed her head and groaned. Her head was now filling up with constant images of people she had never met before! (but in reality, she has)

"Why… am I thinking of such things…?" she managed a groan.

"…who's… there?"

Aeris turned to the lump on the bed. It turned to her, finally revealing who was underneath it. Her eyes widened as she gazed upon a young man with spiky blonde hair. His clothes looked like a warrior of some kind. His bright blue eyes were what attracted Aeris the most. He was what she sensed earlier.

"… have I… met you before?" she asked nervously.

The man blinked his blue eyes and sat up. "…I don't feel any pain anymore…"

Nanaki arched his back and growled furiously. No matter how many times he asked, 'What's going on here?' the woman would completely ignore it. They couldn't do anything about it. She was behind the porch, where he and Barret couldn't get to. Barret lifted his gun arm and fired several bullets again. And, like before, they repelled right off. The woman was still faced the other way, not moving a single inch. Nanaki crouched down.

"Please answer us! What is going on in there?"

The woman clenched her fists and finally turned around. Her face was filled with streams of glowing tears. She wiped them away and managed a sigh.

"I made a favor for my daughter…"

"D-Daughter?"

She nodded. "Yes. Aeris… is my daughter. I know that her memories began to completely fog up ever since she arrived in the Lifestream. That… was an immediate sign that something was about to happen."

"That… all the women would lose their memories." Barret added.

"Do you know who is under this?" Nanaki asked. He stepped up to the woman very slowly.

"…a mad scientist. I do not recall him name… but I sense that he is under this horrible plan. This house is what kept some of my memories in tact. However, this powerful wave is starting to mess around with my memories each day. The only thing I remember is my daughter," she bowed her head and turned away. "I just hope that her memories come back. Or else… she won't be able to take it."

"What's going to happen to her?"

"…"

Nanaki frowned and lifted his head. A bright blue glow peered out from the second-story window. The only thing he could do now was hope for the best. If Aeris _does_ regain her memories, then she could remember what she is capable of doing. But… there was a time back then. Back in the Lifestream forest, Aeris pulled some kind of spell that suddenly brought Barret back into reality. What did that mean…? Did that mean… that parts of her memory were still present? Nanaki gasped and ran up the porch. The sudden impact sent him flying backwards again.

"What the hell are you doing!" Barret growled. "It's not like the second time makes it any different than the first!"

"Aeris… is in trouble!"

The woman furrowed her eyebrow and brought her hand up. A blue fog surrounded Nanaki, causing his body to weigh twice as much. He grunted and collapsed on the ground.

"You cannot interfere! This is the only way she could regain her memories!"

"N-No! We promised… that we would regain her memories together! If she does it this way, her mind will only shatter into pieces!"

The man's blue eyes glowed furiously as Aeris fell to her knees. Her body felt absolutely weak and she couldn't figure out what was going on. His bright blue eyes continued glowing until he collapsed next to Aeris. Her eyes widened as an image of the man appeared in her head. Several flashes of light revealed scenes with her and the man together.

"You… are… Cl-"

"AERIS!"

Nanaki and company quickly entered the room she was in. Their eyes widened at the sight of their friend, Cloud. He was still unconscious but he managed to say, 'Get us out of here.' Barret helped Cloud onto his back while Nanaki helped Aeris stand. She still felt a little lightheaded, but otherwise fine.

Everyone made their way outside of the house. The woman was still standing in the same place on the porch. She didn't understand why she let them in. The only thing she wanted was to have Aeris regain all her memories before it was too late. However, after what Nanaki said about getting her memories together, something clicked inside of her. She sighed and turned away from the friends. Her eyes narrowed as she entered the house silently.

Aeris leaned next to Cloud and placed her hands on his forehead. "He's really warm."

"He's probably sick," Barret added. "But, what now? We can't really rest any longer."

Nanaki nodded slowly. He hated to admit it, but they really couldn't stop anymore. Their destination was to go through the mountains. Perhaps there would be some place to rest there. He sat up and turned to where the woman should be. However, she wasn't there anymore, including the whole house. Nanaki narrowed his eyes.

'A mad scientist. My dream has definite connections to that. I just hope that what I saw… was not true. I hope Yuffie's still okay. I'll find her and put a stop to this nonsense.'

Cloud's eyes slowly opened. The first thing he saw was the face of Aeris. He gasped and sat up, still staring at her green eyes.

"A-Aeris! You're… here!"

She smiled and wrapped her arms around his neck. "You're… here, too."

"Aeris," Nanaki said cautiously. "Do you remember… him?"

She released her grip and bowed her head. "Cl… Cl…"

"…let's go. We must remember our objective, okay?"

"Y-Yes."

And with that, everyone continued their journey towards the mountain off in the distance.

* * *

As they left the now destroyed city behind, Tifa had been quiet after what happened. Her friend was still back there, most likely hurt. However, she had to remember that everything in the Lifestream was just souls and nothing more. But, when she embraced Zack, it felt so real, like he was alive again. Just the thought of that made her face red. Her eyes were about to fill up with tears.

Cid peeked over his shoulder and sighed. He never saw Tifa act like that before… except when she found out that Aeris had died. Now that he thought of it, he hadn't seen Aeris yet in the Lifestream. The first thing he thought he would see would be her face… but it was actually Vincent's. He grunted at that and faced forward.

"Geez, when will she calm down already? I hate to see such a tough woman cry like that," he whispered to himself. "We had no choice. If we stayed behind, she would have ran into that city without any hesitations."

"Yes," Vincent agreed. "I know it's hard to leave someone you care for, but we must concentrate on what we have to do. We must find everyone… and for who is responsible for the loss of the women's memories."

"What about that Zack guy? He said he didn't lose his memory, but I think he was lyin'."

"I'm not sure. Perhaps he had been in contact with that fog for some time and it messed with his mind."

Cid just shrugged at that and turned to Tifa. "Yo, Tif! You alright back there?"

She didn't answer. Her eyes were only concentrating on the metal bolt that Zack had given her. She clutched it into her hand and began to walk faster. She rudely brushed passed Vincent and ran into the darkness. The two men then ran after her.

They soon came to a dead end. Tifa was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, a flash of light appeared in front of them and Tifa stepped out from it. She was now holding a sword similar to Zack's, only it was a bright blue color. She shifted it so that it was in level with her eyes.

"U-Uh… Tif? What the fu-"

"What happened?" Vincent purposely interrupted Cid.

"I… I don't know. It's like… I've been possessed or something. I went through a vortex created by this sword… and it led me to the outside."

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's get the shit out of here!" Cid walked next to Tifa and crossed his arms. "Get over here, Vin."

He nodded his head and stood next to Cid. Tifa brought the sword over her head and slashed in front. A portal suddenly appeared at that. She gestured for everyone to follow her inside. As soon as they entered, the portal disappeared in a blink of an eye.

The portal reappeared and everyone stepped out. As soon as it disappeared, they looked around. They were in the middle of a very busy marketplace. Everyone gave them weird looks and quickly ran away from them. Cid grunted at that and stepped forward.

"Such a nice damn place," he said so sarcastically. "Where the hell are we now?"

"This… looks like the village we went through to get to the underground city," Vincent pointed out. "Except… it's… back to normal."

"Hey you guys!"

Everyone's attention turned to the voice. Tifa's face lightened and she ran towards a figure.

"ZACK!"

* * *

"DAMN THEM!" Hojo slammed his fist against his monitor. "That's the second time they ruined my plans!" He had been observing Nanaki and Tifa's group and he couldn't believe they found a way to resolve their problems. Several things began to bubble up in his head. The fact that Nanaki's little speech about, 'togetherness' and Tifa's way of using her 'sword' left him quite baffled. "How could a simple little 'bolt' have that much power?" he paused. "Well, I guess I'll just aim for their next destination." Hojo pressed a few switches and buttons on his monitor. The screen changed from where Tifa and Nanaki's party was to the mountains. "I'll make sure their last stop is there. By then, my new experiment will be finished."

His head perked up at that. He was busy having so much 'fun' he almost forgotten about his experiment. As he entered the lab where Gast was, Gast was in the middle of extracting what was left of the human DNA. Hojo grinned and patted his back.

"Good work there. Stage three will commence in no time. I will let you know when."

"Yes, sir."

What Hojo didn't know was that Gast was busy with his _own_ work. He wasn't busy extracting the human DNA out from Yuffie. He instead was attempting to regain Yuffie's original body. (which would be the Red XIII one) However, there have been a couple of problems. It seemed that the demon part of Yuffie was trying to prevent Gast from doing anything. The thick black fur acted like a barrier to prevent foreign things from injecting into it. Gast tried to ignore that and continued saving the creature. Hojo remained in the room, still grinning at his progress.

"It's only a matter of time…"

* * *

Reno stopped to catch his breath. Heading to the exit seemed much longer than entering. His cellphone was still jammed and worse, he was stuck with Cait. Cait had been babbling about how the whole world could be in trouble and there was not much time. Reno grunted and slammed his hand against the cave walls. He wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

"We're doomed! We're doomed!" Cait yelled again and again.

"Shut up already! I think I found the way out!"

"Doooooooomed…"

Like the Turks said, he found a way out. He collapsed on the ground and took a deep breath. "I… don't know where the others are… but I hope they're alright…"

Cait was silent. He was staring straight ahead.

Reno waved his hand in front of the stuffed cat. "Helllooo… earth to Reeve."

"S-S…"

Reno lifted and eyebrow and turned around. He blinked for a few moments and suddenly freaked out.

"S-S…shit."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter ten! The Reno and Hojo parts seemed a little… pointless… but I wasn't in the mood to leave them out. Besides, they need suspense. Reno's part won't exactly be big until waaaayyyy later. And the Hojo part… I might make a whole chapter dedicated to him or something. Ew… did I just say that? (twitch) Yeah well, I knew that it would come to that sooner or later. (sigh) Anyways! Hope you liked and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	11. Cannot Turn Back

A/N: This is where things start to get oh-so complicated. A'ight. First of all, this story will be ending sooner than I thought. Like… 3 or 4 chapters or something. So… yeah. This is when I tie in evveerryyythiinnnggg from the first chapter to the previous one. So… yeah. Hard, hard stuffs. I hope I didn't leave anything out. (panick)

Disclaimer:

Reno: Say your last words!  
Author: No! You must let me live! I'm the author who authors your parts!  
Reno: Oh, oh… so I gotta give you the WORST!  
Cait: Hah, poor Miss Author Poo Poo Head. You know, life is great as a toy…  
Author: … (takes out Cait's batteries)  
Cait: …  
(Meanwhile…)Reeve: (falls on his knees) NOOOOOOO!  
Cloud: FF7 doesn't-  
Aeris: -belong to Miss Author!  
Cloud: (sob)

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Eleven

Cannot Turn Back  
_"You are quite the clever one, Professor Gast." -Hojo_

Tifa embraced her friend tightly. She never thought she would see Zack ever again. However, there he was… right in front of her eyes. Zack patted the back of Tifa's head and calmed her down. The villagers watched with smiles on their faces. They were happy that everything was back to normal. Tifa finally released her embrace and stared into Zack's eyes.

"What happened back there? I thought…"

"I don't even know myself. It's like… the Lifestream decided not to accept anyone."

"What do you mean?"

Cid and Vincent furrowed their eyebrows at that. It was like how Tuck told them. There hadn't been any offerings taken for a while now. Now, they definitely knew that whoever was responsible for this was going to make it extremely worse. Without offerings, the Other World won't last any longer. And they didn't want to think about what would happen to the Lifestream then.

Zack shook his head. "I should have been offered already. I've been here far too long. I haven't helped the Other World yet."

Tifa placed her hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. That's why we're going to find out who is under this. And then… you can finish your duty here."

The man nodded and turned to her friends. "So, where're you guys heading?"

"We don't even know anymore," Cid grunted. "We were supposed to go inside some cave but… we haven't seen anything. Just shit, shit, and more shit."

"A cave huh? Well, I recall one somewhere up in the mountains," he pointed straight ahead. There was a mountain off in the distance. It looked like it was walking distance from the village. "I believe that, right there. But, I should warn you. I heard that it's incredibly dangerous in there. I suggest you take care of that bolt I gave you."

Tifa clutched it in her fist. "Yes, I will."

Zack frowned. "Just be careful with it. Its powers are drawn out by your own determination. It has very unpredictable powers."

"Yes, I will be careful."

"We must be on our way now," Vincent spoke up. "Thank you with everything."

"Take care, Zack!"

With that, the three travelers resumed their journey to find their friends. Everyone in the village wished them luck as they departed. Zack shifted around and rubbed his forehead.

'Unpredictable… meaning… you could most likely… lose your memories… like how I did.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

As the small village disappeared behind the hills, the mountain was just in their reach. It looked impossible to climb, but luckily, they were determined as ever to find everyone. They were ready for whatever lies ahead of them. Tifa's eyes never gazed off of the metal bolt in her hands. Unpredictable powers it held… exactly what kind? She began to wonder how she easily handled it when it suddenly turned into a sword. It was almost like she knew what to do. In the past, she could never handle swords very well… but she definitely proved that wrong.

Suddenly, the bolt began to glow a bright blue color. Everyone stopped walking to check it out. A flash of light appeared inside Vincent's pocket. He slowly pulled out the necklace that Lucrecia had put inside before. (he doesn't know that she put it there, however) There was a metal eagle pendant tied around the chains. Vincent lifted it up as it began to pull itself towards the mountain. Tifa clutched her metal bolt and stepped forward.

"Each time we move closer to this mountain, our items seem to react."

"Yes, there must be something absolutely powerful waiting for us."

Cid's body twitched for a second. "Hey, why 'em I the only one left out? What the hell is going on here? I thought Tifa was the only one who had one of those thingamabobs."

Vincent turned around. "I had no idea this was in my pocket. Someone must have placed it there while I wasn't looking."

"Really now?" Cid reached inside all his pockets and found nothing. He snapped his fingers and sighed. "Damn. It's like this place doesn't want me to help or something," he twitched again.

Tifa walked to him. "Remember what Zack did to draw out his sword? He took it out from his back. Maybe… that's why you're all… twitchy like that."

"Shit no! I ain't gonna do something gross like that!"

"Fine, then. If you don't wanna help…" she teased.

Cid twitched his eye and reached his arm back. He groaned as his hand actually disappeared inside his back. His face turned red as he suddenly pulled out a yellow sword, just like Zack's. Vincent and Tifa blinked and stepped away. It was disgusting the first time they saw it, but… he just made it worse. Cid chucked the sword on the ground and held his stomach.

"DAMMIT! That frickin' hurt!"

"Well, now you know what to do next time!" Tifa smiled nervously.

He bowed his head and muttered incoherent words under his breath. Vincent helped him up and nodded at the mountain.

"Now, we're ready."

Tifa nodded. "Right. Let's go."

* * *

"Heehe… I could feel the Lifestream getting angrier and angrier each second! It's been several years since an offering has been sacrificed. Thanks to me, the population here will dramatically increase, therefore creating complete chaos. Chaos… I love that word…"

Gast turned away from him. He had been reciting that over and over for the last hour or so. Gast had already completed his tough work on the human DNA and still, his colleague hadn't noticed anything at all. They were about to commence Stage three, but he had to make sure everything was ready. Once Stage three commences, there was no other way to help Yuffie. Although her DNA was still in tact, her heart will not anymore. Gast just needed Hojo to leave the room so they he won't notice anything suspicious. However, Hojo wanted to watch his creation complete itself before his very eyes.

Hojo leaned towards the tube and grinned. "Is Stage two accomplished?"

"Y-Yes, sir. However, I believe we should rest before we enter Stage three."

"Why is that?" Hojo was starting to get suspicious.

Gast waved his hands side-to-side. "N-No, it's not like that. You see, this creature might still be exhausted from the first two stages. If it doesn't regain its strength, it might not be able to wipe out everyone in the mountains."

"Hm. That is true, indeed… however…" Hojo stepped up to his colleague and forcefully grabbed his collar. "Since when have you found the need to wipe out everyone?"

"W-What?"

"Before, you kept complaining about how this was crazy. Don't try to fool around with me. I know what you've been trying to do."

"B-But sir!"

"You are quite the clever one, Professor Gast."

He lifted Gast off from the ground and chucked him across the room. He hit against the wall extremely hard, causing him to black out instantly. Hojo laughed for a few moments and slammed his hand against the test tube.

"Don't you worry, my precious creature… Uncle Gast will not interfere with us anymore. But, he made my work hard now…" he switched on a few switches on the control panel, making the chemicals in the tube to change into a bright yellow color. Small red particles sprinkled out from Yuffie's black fur. "There. No more of that bad human DNA on you," he grinned. "Stage three commences… NOW."

* * *

Several footsteps approached the red headed Turks slowly. His nightstick was out in front, ready for any surprise attacks. Streaks of pure silver hair fell on his face as a figure in black crouched down in front of him.

"Never thought I'd see you here, again," a deep voice said.

Reno leaned against the wall of the cave. "Sephiroth… what the hell are you doing here?"

"I should be asking you that question," Sephiroth stood up and turned to the cave. "…of course. You're still trying to figure out what I did, huh?"

"I already know what you did! You sent all those AVALANCHE guys straight to the Lifestream! And I'm going to do something about that!"

"My, how persistent. However, I doubt you'll know how to do so."

"What then? _You're_ going to help me or something?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes at that. "I don't know how to, as well."

"…uhm… okay… then… why are you here?"

"As soon as I sent them away, I had a strong feeling that they had chances of escaping. The look from those two… was different from the others," he turned to Reno. "You and your other associates think you can save them?"

Reno stood up to his feet. "I don't know! There's something inside this damn cave and we can't find it anywhere!"

Sephiroth turned and entered the cave. "If you can change that attitude of yours, I might be of some help."

"Y-You! You'll probably make it even worse! I can't trust you!"

"If what I sensed before is true, I must see it before my very eyes. And besides, this is not how I wanted it to be in the first place." (Chap. 3, hint hint)

The Turks shook his head. He could tell that this was some kind of trick. Why else would he be back here? But for now, there was no choice. Perhaps he knew a way to help.

"Fine. But first, I need to make sure my friends are alright."

With that said, Reno and Cait Sith followed Sephiroth into the dark cave.

* * *

"Are you _sure_ you're alright, Aeris?"

"For the bajillionith time, I am, Nanaki," she giggled.

"I'm just making sure."

Nanaki knew that Aeris' memories were very important to her. And after what happened, she hadn't talked about her experience inside the house. He knew that there was something bothering her. Nanaki really wanted to help whatever was troubling her. Perhaps, it was the fact that she almost remembered Cloud's name? Now that he thought of it, Aeris had been awfully clingy to him ever since they met. Maybe, parts of her memory had truly returned…?

Anyway, he was just glad that Cloud was found. Now, he had to find the rest. But, what were the chances of finding them before this 'mad scientist' got out of control? It was only a matter of time before his dream could actually come true…

Barret twirled his dagger around. "Hey, we're almost to the mountain!"

"Stop messing around with that thing! What if you poke someone's eye out?" Aeris quickly snatched the dagger out from his hands and sighed. "You're like a child."

Just then, the dagger began to glow a red color. Nanaki's necklace did as well. They began to shake as they pulled Aeris and Nanaki toward the mountain.

"W-What's going on?" Aeris asked worriedly.

"I don't know… I think they sense something really powerful coming in that direction…"

"Why's my dagger reacting?" Barret shrugged his shoulders.

Cloud gripped his shaking arm tightly. "We mustn't stop for anything. It's now or never."

Everyone nodded. It was now official. No more stops, no more sidetracking, and no more second thoughts. It was now or never. As they made it to the top of the hill, their destination was no more than fifty feet away from them. The fresh breeze seemed to calm everyone down a little. However, that never ceased the tension that was now filling the air. The bright glows of the dagger and necklace never faded away. They were definitely getting stronger each time they stepped closer.

'Yuffie… everyone… I'm going to find you…'

"Heeeyyy!"

Everyone's attention turned to the sudden noise. Off in the distance, they could see three small figures standing near the mountain.

"Hey! It's Tifa, Cid, and Vin!" Barret yelled. He waved his huge arms in the air. "YOU GUYS!"

The friends soon reunited right in front of the mountain. They greeted each other with hugs and various conversations. However, Aeris remained near Cloud. She was happy that she could see her 'friends' again. But… she would be even happier if she actually remembered them. Tifa was the first to greet her.

"Aeris! It's been a very long time! It's nice to see you again!"

"M-Me too…" she remembered seeing an image of her before… but no scenes with her whatsoever. Only Cloud.

"Aeris!" Cid made his way through his friends. "There you are! Y'know, I thought the first person I would see would be you, but ya'see… it was Vin, so… yeah. Glad to see you're still doing great."

Vincent sighed at his friend's comment. He turned to Aeris and bowed his head. "I, too, am glad you are doing fine."

"You could be more original than that!" Cid teased.

"N-No, it's okay. I'm… pleased to meet everyone." '…again…'

"Where were you guys anyway? We thought you were somewhere in this mountain!" Barret suddenly blurted out.

"We thought so, too," Tifa replied. "I'm glad you guys made it easier for us."

"We're the ones to tease!" Cloud joked.

"EVERYONE!" Nanaki stomped his paw on the ground. "We still have more things to deal with."

Vincent crossed his arms. "Yes, we shouldn't celebrate just yet. Yuffie's still in trouble, let alone the whole Lifestream."

"Hey, wait…" Nanaki started. "You guys know the troubles of the Lifestream?"

"Huh dur, wolf-dog," Cid responded. "All the women here lost their memories. People said that some kind of evil dude started taking over it."

"And that that evil 'dude' was some kind of mad scientist."

"What?"

"A mad scientist…" Vincent's red eyes glowed at that. "There's only one I know of… and that's Hojo."

"Yes, of course…" Cloud slapped his forehead. "It was right underneath our noses!"

"Wow, we're so slow," Barret added.

Nanaki shook his head. "So, as soon as we go through this mountain and into that cave… he should be there?"

"I would sure damn hope so," Cid growled.

"Well, one way to find out." Aeris began walking toward the mountain. Her face showed no signs of worry.

Everyone else nodded in agreement and followed her close behind.

* * *

A/N: End of chapter eleven! Yay! Everyone loves reunions! Oh yeah! I'm going to give you an extra after this. I was originally going to put that into the story but… I didn't want it to end all goofy like that. Hehe. Oh, and... next chapter... we're going to hear from someone we haven't heard in a VERY long time. (hint hint) Hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it!

* * *

_EXTRA:__After the whole gang meets up with their friends and so on and so forth._

Cid: So, where were you guys anyway! We've been looking for you for frickin' days!  
Barret: I should say the same thing, too.  
Tifa: Hey, you know what I just realized?  
Cloud: What?  
Tifa: Why didn't we just call each other on the PHS so we would know where everyone was?  
Everyone: …  
Aeris: ?


	12. Our Eyes Meet

A/N: I practically had to read through my other chapters just to make sure I didn't leave any important details out. If I did… then… poopy me. (mumbles)

Thankies for reviewing! Ahhhh! You'll know what happens to Yuffie as you read this… (panicks)

Disclaimer:

Aeris: You work very hard, Miss Author.  
Author: Why, thank you, Aeris. I do work hard.  
Aeris: How do you do it?  
Author: Well… I have this little schedule that I-  
Reno: GAH! What're you doing! I was gonna beat the crap out of her!  
Aeris: Wow! You're schedule looks really tight… but… what's this picture of Vincent at the beach…?  
Author: (closes planner) WHOAHO! Look at the time! I don't own FF7! (runs)  
Reno: YAY! (chases)  
Aeris: …

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Twelve 

Our Eyes Meet   
_'M…My dream…' -Nanaki_

Once Sephiroth and Reno entered the cave, their first aim was to find Rude. If memory served the red head right, he remembered Elena saying she 'fell down'. Most likely she fell from some high point, but not high enough to hurt her fragile bottom. He needed Rude's muscle power to help scoop her out.

As soon as the two arrived at the three divided paths, Reno pointed to the far right and started walking. But, before he could enter it, Sephiroth clamped his hand into Reno's shirt collar. The Turks growled and turned around.

"What the hell is your deal! I thought you wanted to help me!"

"I thought you were going to change that attitude of yours."

"Look, once I find my friends, THEN I'll change whatever attitude I have."

Sephiroth pushed his hair back and entered the middle path without saying a word. Reno growled and stomped his foot. "Where the hell are YOU going! I was gonna go to where Rude went to!"

"Do as you please… if you want to fall into the same trap as he did."

The Turks twitched an eye and sighed loudly. Seeing there weren't any better options, he decided to follow his foe. Even though he still doesn't trust him, he was the only chance he had to find his friends and bring AVALANCHE back. However, Cait had second thoughts.

As he watched Reno enter the middle path, Cait secretly chose the far left one. He had a very strong feeling that Sephiroth was up to his little tricks. He remembered that after he finished off the ninja and the boy, he saw that evil glow twinkling in his eyes. No matter what he said, Cait thought otherwise. He also knew that 'if you want to fall into the same trap as he did' was a trick as well. Cait had been ordered to explore this cave fairly well. And from his observations, the path to the left was the best to go through. It was the one that led to the other paths.

Finally, he arrived at the long water slide. Luckily enough, he was a toy and was able to see well in dark places. He leaned forward and yelled, 'ELENA' and waited for a response. After a few moments, he heard a faint voice through the moving water. Cait moved a little closer and called out her name again. Finally, through the darkness, he saw Elena walking through the mud.

"W-Who's there!" she yelled.

"It's Cait! Are you alright?"

"Of course I'm not alright! I'm wet, I'm covered in mud, I smell, and I think my make-up's smeared!"

Cait laughed to himself at that. She was right about the make-up… and it sure wasn't a pretty sight. He shook the thought off and crouched down. "Okay, I'm coming down there."

"W-Wait!"

At that, he pushed himself off and slid down the 'waterslide'. He was certainly enjoying his little ride as he made loud cheering noises. Elena slapped her forehead as the stuffed toy slid right into the mud. She sighed and pulled the cat out.

"Great! Now who's gonna help us out of here now! I can't reach Reno or Rude on the phone!"

"Relax! I know this cave like the wires inside this body!"

"…"

Elena and Cait slowly made their way through the big mud pile. As they headed further down the cave, it had gotten ridiculously dark. Cait held the woman's hand and told her to never let go. She muttered in agreement. Now that she thought of it, she never even realized that there was more cave in the back. It looked like it was a dead-end. Suddenly, Cait came to a sudden halt, almost making Elena step right on his head.

"W-What's wrong?" Cait released his grip from Elena. The woman panicked at that. "AH! What're you doing! I-I can't tell where I'm going if-"

"Elena. Reach your arms out and touch this wall."

Without saying a word, she did as she was told. She felt a really rough wall no more than five inches away from her face. She gasped and stepped back. "Oh my gosh! This… this is a dead-end!"

"Now, listen carefully. Once we enter through, we cannot turn back. You can say this is our 'one way ticket' to the other side."

"W-Wait! How're we supposed to go through? Is there a door?"

"No, we must run into it."

"WHAT!"

"Trust me."

Cait took the woman's shaking hand and turned around. They definitely needed a lot of running space to ram right into the wall. Elena was really unsure about the whole thing. However, she couldn't think of anything better to do than sit in a fetal position and cry.

"On three, we run as fast as we can. And keep your arms out so you know when you can't run anymore, okay?"

Elena bit her lip and muttered a 'yes'.

"Alright. One… two… THREE!"

They released each other's grip and thrust forward with incredible speed. Elena was thankful that the Turks did a lot of running-related things in training. She stretched her arms out and felt the rough stonewall. And, to her surprise, she felt herself going right through it. Once she made it all the way through, the other side was much brighter than the other. Elena blinked in confusion and turned around several times to the cave wall. She couldn't believe it! It was like she was a ghost and could go through walls easily like that! While she was deep in thought about that, Cait brushed himself off and peered over some rocks. He sighed in relief. Reno and Sephiroth still haven't made it all the way through the path. They still had time to reach Rude on the other side. Cait tapped Elena's arm and gestured for her to follow him.

Suddenly, they heard faint footsteps. The cat grunted to himself and clamped his big hand onto Elena's small one. "We only have one chance to do this. We can't let Reno or Sephiroth see us…"

Elena gasped. "S-SEPHIROTH'S-"

Cait jumped up and covered her mouth at that. They remained silent, hopefully no one heard the loudmouth. After a few seconds, the footsteps stopped and Sephiroth's voice could be heard. Cait jumped down from the woman's shoulders and leaned forward. He could hear the two men clearly.

"So, this is where you ended up?" Sephiroth asked flatly.

"Yeah, seeing that there wasn't any way out."

Cait gestured for Elena to crouch down. Sephiroth revealed himself through the rocks and placed his hands against the walls of the cave. His face showed no signs of any evil plotting, however, his eyes was filled with evil. Cait wished he could just call an attack on him, but for now, they couldn't do anything. Besides, they were a little too late for that.

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and pressed his right hand hard against the wall. He turned to Reno who seemed disgusted by him now.

"What are you doing?" he grunted at him.

"…did you know that this cave holds strange powers?"

"Gee, I never really studied about the wonders of the mysterious cave."

"Everything you see here are illusions."

Elena leaned towards Cait. "Like before?"

He nodded. "Yeah, there's another one that leads straight to Rude. But, we havetah wait til these guys-"

Suddenly, long strands of silver hair appeared in front of their faces. They gasped and looked up into the eyes of Sephiroth. He narrowed his eyes at that.

"Well, well. What do we have here? Little eavesdroppers by chance?"

Reno pulled out his gun and aimed it to Sephiroth's head. "Don't you DARE touch them! Or else I'll send you to hell!"

"…and what have I told you about that ATTITUDE!" he quickly turned and drew out his Masamune. In one thrust, the red head found himself locked in Sephiroth's grasp. His blade over his neck and his arms tightly fastened around his shoulders. "Now… you were saying?"

Reno growled and glared at Elena and Cait. "Don't… you dare… do anything…"

"Not on my watch!" Cait jumped up and landed right onto Sephiroth's face. He took his red cape off and tied it around his eyes. Sephiroth grunted and released his grip on the red head. Reno aimed his gun to his foe as he backed up next to Elena. Cait fastened the knot behind Sephiroth's head and turned to Elena.

"We can't get Rude now, Elena! Go through the wall that Mister Silver Hair touched!"

Elena perked her head up and pointed. "T-That one?"

"Yes! We'll deal with this mister right here!"

"B-But!"

"Just go!" Reno yelled. "We'll try an' slow this guy down!"

Without saying another word, Elena nodded and made her way through the wall. Like last time, it was incredibly dark. However, the walls of the cave were narrow, so she was able to navigate it through pretty easily. Off in the distance, she could hear a faint noise coming in her direction. It sounded like it was someone breathing. Just to be safe, the woman took out her gun and placed it right in front. Soon, she came to a point where the walls of the cave were spreading further and further away. The faint breathing sounded like it was right in front of her. She felt something grab onto her shoulders.

"AHHH! L-LET ME G-GO!" Before she could shoot, a deep voice quickly replied,

"Elena! It's me, Rude!"

"Ruuuudddeee!" she wrapped her arms around the man's neck. "Oh my gosh! I would have NEVER expected you to be here!"

"Me either… I found out that I could go through the walls here."

"Me too! Listen, Sephiroth is here and he said that everything in this cave are illusions… of course, except the bodies…"

"I had a feeling. Did you bring a flashlight?"

Elena searched her pockets and paused. "… if I did, I would have used it a long time ago!"

"Sorry," Rude took out his cellphone and switched it on. The dimly lit screen was their only source of light for now. Elena took hers out as well.

"We might as well find out where this place leads. Stay close to me," Rude held Elena's hand and began walking through the cave.

Elena felt a blush on her face and nodded. "R-Right. I just hope… that Reno and Cait are alright…"

* * *

"Ugh… where… am I…?"

Yuffie slowly sat up and looked around. Her surroundings were pitch black and it was absolutely silent. She had no idea what had been going ever since she entered the Lifestream. She felt… nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was like her mind had been separated from her body. Suddenly, she felt her whole body ache. It felt like needles were stabbing her straight into the heart. She closed one of her eyes and stood up. Just then, the darkness disappeared and was replaced by a laboratory scene. Yuffie stepped forward and looked around. At that moment, she finally realized where she was.

"The laboratory… Hojo!" she banged her fists against the sides of wherever she was. "Let me go you asshole! I wanna see Nanaki!"

At that, Hojo's face suddenly appeared right in front of her. He stroked his finger against the test tube and grinned evilly. Yuffie growled and banged her fists again. He obviously couldn't hear her so… where was she?

"It's time, my precious," the liquid in the tube drained at that. Yuffie fell to her bottom as she felt a slight 'earthquake'. "It's time to test you out. And might I add… I adore your looks…" Hojo placed a mirror out in front. Yuffie's eyes widened as she gazed into the eyes of a total demon! She could even see herself inside the creature's red eyes.

"I-I'm… this… thing?" The demon seemed to growl in response. Hojo opened the test tube and the creature made its way to the ground. Yuffie pounded her fists on the ground. "Hey! You can't tell me to do anything! You can NEVER control Yuffie Kisaragi!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Meanwhile, Nanaki and his friends began their journey through the mountain path. So far, they haven't encountered any dangers, but they were still alert as ever. No one made the slightest noise as their only thing to worry about was finding Yuffie, Hojo… and… to figure out what they were to do _when_ they do so.

Tifa clutched her metal bolt tightly. 'I won't let you down, Zack. I will treasure this until the very end.'

'This better be worth it…' Barret twirled his dagger around and grinned. 'I feel both of our strengths inside this weapon… Dyne.'

Vincent clutched the necklace that was now tied around his neck. 'Lucrecia… you lent me all of your remaining powers in my care. I assure you that everything will return to normal.'

Cid lifted an eyebrow and whispered to Cloud, "Hey, did you get one of those thingies that can change into a weapon or something?"

"…what?"

"…meh. Nevermind."

"I can pull one out from my back if that's what you're saying…"

"Really? Damn! So I'm not the only one…" Cid clenched his fists together and lifted his head. 'Time to kick some Hojo-ass!'

Nanaki stared at his necklace and smiled. 'Even though we may be apart, I could still sense your presence right here… Yuffie.'

Suddenly, Aeris, who had been leading the group, came to a stop. She crouched down, noticing a really large pit on the ground. There wasn't anything they could use to move across it. Luckily though, Dyne's trusty brown bag had plenty useful things. Barret pulled out a rope and tied a loop. He twirled the rope around and threw it across the pit. The loop fastened onto one of the big rocks. Barret tugged the rope and gave it the 'OK'.

"Aeris, you go first," Nanaki said. She nodded and carefully climbed onto the rope. Nanaki nodded his head to Tifa as she followed Aeris. Next were Cloud, Vincent, and Cid. As they made their way across, Nanaki nodded to Barret. "Your turn."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine."

Barret tied the rope around a huge rock as Nanaki fastened his canine teeth into it. As Barret made it across, Nanaki bit the rope off as Barret pulled it to his side. Nanaki backed away from the pit and quickly ran towards it. In the last second, he jumped over the pit and easily made it to the other side.

"Wow, Nanaki!" Aeris clapped her hands. "That was neat!"

"Hey! Why didn't you do that in the frickin' first place!" Cid yelled.

"I wasn't sure how long the pit was. But after I measured the-"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Let's just go."

Several minutes have already passed, and they found themselves face-to-face with some abnormal-looking monsters. However, they posed no threat whatsoever. One finger on them reduced them to dust. After that, they had to climb over jagged rocks, face even more of those abnormal monsters, and pass through a very thin path. Finally, they took a moment to catch their breath. The only person who found no need to do so was Aeris.

"A-Are… we… there yeeet?" Cloud panted as he fell backwards.

Tifa copied him. "Well, we haven't… seen any… caves…"

"There was one… but that was being occupied by those damn monsters!" Barret sighed. "I hope… that wasn't it…"

Nanaki sat next to Aeris. "Are you alright?"

She nodded. "Yes… but… I feel something very strange off in the distance."

"What is it?"

"…I can hear… someone crying for help."

'…Yuffie.' "We will leave as soon as we rest up."

"…okay."

Suddenly, distant howls echoed throughout the mountain. That immediately gave everyone attention. All was silent for a while. Just then, a black blur zoomed right passed the group. A huge whirlwind was created at that. The black blur passed them again and finally stopped. A demon with black needle-like fur with red eyes glared at everyone. Aeris' eyes widened and held her head.

'T-This… feeling… is the same… in that house…!'

Everyone pulled out their items as they changed into a sword ('cept for Cloud and Cid). Nanaki stepped forward as his necklace began glow like crazy. He could feel his body ready to change into a human. He couldn't help but stare into the creature's eyes. Passe the black cross-like slits… he could have sworn he saw…

'M…My dream…' Nanaki told himself. He shook it off and yelled, "YUFFIE!"

* * *

A/N: End of chapter twelve! Whoaho… the plot thickens! Anyways, I know in the game, Rude mentions that Elena liked Tseng, but remember… he went bye-bye so… why not? I could have paired her with Reno but… hey, she's surrounded by two good-looking men. (squishes face) Lucky woman… anyway! I hope you enjoyed and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	13. Sudden Impact

A/N: (falls to knees) One week… passed a-already? Aw, man. I'm sorry for the very very long wait. Eh. Annyywaayyss, as you can already tell, the first part of this story is very wordy! BUT! It's filled with action packed things! Rawr! It's what you've been waiting for! (smile)

Shankies for reviewing! (dances)

Disclaimer:

Cait: A week passed! Argh! Miss Author Poo Poo Head is very slow!  
Aeris: (still wondering about the Vincent picture)  
Cloud: Nyeah… I think Reno has Miss Author in a tight spot.  
Aeris: Oh?  
Cloud: She's dangling from a thread above a pit filled with mad dogs.  
Aeris: …  
Cait: …Hooray!  
Aeris: Wait, I thought your batteries were removed?  
Cait: …whoops.  
Cloud: …uh… FF7 doesn't belong to Miss Author!

**Reveal Your True Eyes**  
Chapter Thirteen

Sudden Impact  
'_As a ninja, it is my duty to think of clever things to make my enemies all pissed at me!' -Yuffie_

Several bolts of lightning suddenly struck the ground with extreme force. The whole mountain shook fiercefully, causing rocks to fly everywhere. The black furred demon easily dodged the falling debris and quickly lunged toward Tifa. The sudden impact made her collide right into a boulder behind her. Vincent, who was watching her back, appeared above the demon and struck its back. However, the blade barely even touched a single fur. The demon turned and stabbed several needles into his arm, causing him to move out of the way. Cid and Cloud leapt up high and aimed their swords for the huge boulders right above the demon. With one move, their swords hit the boulders and it came crashing down. All was silent for a while, until loud roars were heard from above.

The demon, which didn't seemed to be injured at all, aimed its sharp fur downwards and shot several needles directly to AVALANCHE. Everyone retreated behind some boulders while Nanaki stood his ground, taking in the assault. He flinched as the sharp needles grazed his face ever so slightly. His tail flame burned with all its might as he leapt high into the air. His necklace gave off a powerful bright light, causing the foe to turn away. After it faded, Nanaki was now in his human form, holding a very old-looking sword. The two fighters landed on separate boulders in unison. Their glares never ceased to move away from each other. A light breeze passed through, creating a feeling of suspense. Nanaki had to resist harming the demon in anyway. No matter what the appearance, it was still Yuffie. If any harm came to her, he wouldn't know what to do. The demon took one step forward and growled. Its mind was filled with nothing but malice and the need to kill anything that got in its way. Yuffie continued pounding her small fists against the invisible barrier. She wasn't sure what else there was to do. The only thing that came into mind was for Nanaki to destroy the monster. It was the only way to save her friends, and possibly save the whole Lifestream.

Back in the laboratory, Hojo had been witnessing the fight from his window. A wide grin appeared on his face. Everything had been going according to his plan. Once the enemies were defeated, he could finally prepare the end of the Lifestream and the 'Other World'. He turned to his colleague who had been witnessing the horrible events from a nearby monitor. He was chained up to a table but his legs were free to move about. However, Hojo had injected a poison that prevented him from doing so. The mad scientist laughed evilly and combed his fingers through his messy black hair.

"All is going well," he grinned. "They have no chances of escaping this."

Gast struggled with the chains. "H-Hojo! This… this is far beyond insane!"

"You're right. This is _insanely_ insane!"

Suddenly, the monitor Gast had been watching from starting making beeping noises. Hojo trudged towards it and pressed random buttons on the keyboard. His eyes widened as he watched random numbers appear on his screen. Those were the same readings he observed a while back. He still wasn't sure what the meaning of it was. A sudden blast outside caused the monitor to explode. Hojo stepped away and pounded his fist against the table. He paused and turned his head to his window. Several lightning bolts shot out from above, creating massive explosions and slight earthquakes. Hojo's computer systems seemed to react to this by creating beeping noises. He snapped his head to his monitors as the same random numbers began appearing one by one. He stepped forward and stroked his finger against the computer screen.

"This power," he muttered. "…is not… what I had planned!"

The demon clawed his way through the falling boulders. Cloud twirled his sword and struck the demon's back with such power. The demon roared loudly as lightning spewed out from its fur. The sudden impact caused Cloud to fly right into Cid and Barret. The demon cocked his head around and finally spotted Aeris. Her eyes were wide open, filled with fright and worry. She knew that there was something she could do, but what was it? Images of the Lifestream Forest started to appear before her eyes. Those chants… she was the one doing it? Aeris wasn't completely sure, because after that moment, all was complete darkness. Did she really… do all that?

Nanaki turned his head and yelled, "AERIS! GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

She snapped out of her thoughts and saw the demon making its way to her. She backed up against a boulder and screamed loudly. For some reason, the demon stopped running and growled in pain. The noise seemed to make the demon's body to paralyze. AVALANCHE cautiously walked up to the animal and waited.

"I…Is it… over?" Aeris said as she got up to her feet.

Suddenly, the demon broke free from its frozen state and pinned Aeris down. Cid yelled random swear words and pulled its tail. Cloud and Barret helped Cid while Vincent, Tifa and Nanaki tried their best to push the demon away from Aeris. Nanaki grunted and dug his fingers into the fur.

"Y-Yuffie! Get a hold of yourself! Fight this thing!"

'I-I can't!' Yuffie clenched her fists and pounded her fists on the ground. 'There's nothing I can do… Hojo already replaced my heart into this… demon's heart…'

"C-Come on Yuffie!" Nanaki continued to dig his nails through. There was no reaction from the demon however. Yuffie lifted her head and stared at Nanaki's human appearance. "Y-You're clever enough to think of something! W-We'll try to hold this demon off!"

The ninja gasped and stood up. 'That's right! As a ninja, it is my duty to think of clever things to make my enemies all pissed at me!' she grinned at the thought. She tightened her headband and pounded her fist into her palm.

'Alright… think Yuffie! When I came to the Lifestream, I was in my beast form… so… maybe if I… turn this demon into a human!… with the power of my necklace!' She tugged her necklace off and dangled it in front of her. She closed her eyes and clenched the necklace tightly. 'Come on… change this demon into my human form!'

Nothing happened.

Yuffie sighed and yelled out loud, "COME ON! WORK! I NEED SOME COOPERATION HERE!"

Still, nothing happened.

"EVERYONE NEEDS MY HELP! PLEASE!"

Her efforts were in vain. She fell to her knees and buried her face into her hands. What else was there to do…?

* * *

Elena and Rude slowly made their way through the dark cave. Their cellphone lights barely gave off enough light to see anything. So far, they've only encountered narrow walls and close-called pit holes. The last thing they wanted to think about was if they would even make it out alive. Their only thought now was to find whatever was at the end of the cave. Elena peered at her cellphone screen and poked her cheeks with a sad expression on her face.

"Oh… my make-up…"

Rude sighed. "That should be the least of your worries."

"I know! I just want to look good for when we're done with this mission…"

The man smiled to himself. At first glance, he saw her to be pretty perky and maybe a little annoying, according to Reno. However, now that he was with her alone, he had gotten a new impression of her. She was always alert, never actually complained about anything, except for Reno, and was always thinking of her objective, not to mention fully confident. Rude had only wished Reno would see that in Elena instead of an annoying sidekick. His thoughts disappeared as he felt Elena come to a complete stop. After a few seconds, he realized why she had done so.

"I hear… a voice," the woman said. "It sounds like… a child's."

He gripped Elena's hand tighter and moved forward. "Let's go."

The sounds of their footsteps seemed to echo loudly with each passing second. Rude tried to feel for the walls but couldn't. Elena remained close to Rude and aimed her cellphone light in front. She couldn't spot any walls anywhere.

"Elena," Rude whispered. "I am going to release our grip."

"N-No! Are you crazy! What if-!"

"Please trust me. I'll spot your cellphone light and I'll come right back to you. Just stay right there."

The woman sniffed. "O-Okay…"

Rude slipped his hand away from hers and slowly walked away. For a brief second, the sound of his footsteps was disappearing. Elena twirled around, hoping there wasn't going to be any surprise attacks. Suddenly, she felt something tug her arm.

"R-Rude?" she asked cautiously.

"Yes?" he responded in a very calm manner.

Elena grunted. "Gah! Don't scare me like that! W-Where did you go anyway?"

"Follow me, Rude gripped her hand and started walking. They came across a small cliff that gave off a dim light from the bottom. Elena's face glowed in the light as she crouched down.

"Wow! What is that thing?"

"I'm not sure. But it must be what we're looking for."

"How are we supposed to get down there?"

"…we jump."

"WHAT!"

"Trust me. If Sephiroth said that the cave's features are just illusions, we should be alright."

Elena tugged her short hair and nodded. "O-Okay."

"On three. One… two…"

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind caused the two couple to lose their balance. Rude fell in first and pulled Elena down with him.

"YOU SAID ON THREE!"

"Uhm… Elena?"

"WHAT!"

"We're on the bottom already."

"…eh?" she looked around. He was right! In just one second, they reached the bottom. So… even cliffs could be deceiving. She shook the thought off as she followed Rude to the dim lights. The walls were creating the lights, giving it a peaceful touch. Elena stopped in front of the wall to touch it. Her hands were now covered in some kind of dust.

"Elena," Rude finally said.

"What's wrong?"

He stepped away, revealing a small boy dressed in torn clothes. His appearance practically matched Sephiroth's, only… his eyes were a dark blue color. His short silver hair glowed like the walls of the cave. The boy slowly stood up and offered his hand to the Turks.

"The Chosen Ones are in need of your assistance."

* * *

A/N: End of chapter 13! Eeee! This story is soon coming to its conclusion. Maybe… 2 more chapters or something? (shrug) Seems good I guess. Anyways! I hope you liked and please tell me how you thought of it! 


	14. Embrace

A/N: (bows) I know I know! More than a week has passed. Argy! So sorry. But! Like I said in my profile, I promised to post up chapter 14 and well… here it is! (dances) Today ish my b-day! Whoop whoop! (loud gasp) So is Squall's! (hugs him)

Shankies for reviewing! Hope you enjoy this chappie!

Disclaimer:

Cait: Dangit! It's Miss Author Poo Poo Head's birthday today…  
Author: Hooray! Now I'm Yuffie's age!  
Yuffie: Actually, I'm older than you.  
Author: …boo…  
Yuffie: But, oh well! (dances)  
Vincent: (hands Miss Author a card) Happy… birthday.  
Author: Phwee! (hugs him) Aw, shankies! (opens card) …ah. You spelled my name wrong…  
Cait: Merry Happy Birthday Miss Author Poo Poo Head and, blah blah FF7 doesn't belong to her.

**Reveal Your True Eyes **  
Chapter Fourteen

Embrace  
"…_t-took you… look enough…" -Yuffie_

A loud clash of two weapons roared throughout the cave. A bright flash of light followed after, forming into a dragon-like creature. Reno jumped away from it and fell to one knee in exhaustion. His attempts in distracting Sephiroth from his friends were actually working. However, he wasn't sure how long he could pull this off. Sephiroth's attacks were insanely strong and he had been attacking close range ever since they began the duel. The red head slowly stood up and stared at his opponent's eyes. Those bright green colored eyes showed no signs of malice or anything. It was like Sephiroth was actually enjoying the fight. In one leap forward, Reno quickly drew out his nightstick and slashed straight across Sephiroth's chest perfectly. The attack created an ear-splitting noise that not even the strongest human could withstand. Reno covered his ears as Sephiroth called out his fire magic. The bright flames surrounded its enemy, where his attempts in escaping were useless. The tall man grinned victoriously and stepped towards the flames.

"Looks like I win."

The Turks smiled and stepped back. "Shyeah, but there's one problem," he thrust forward and ran through the flames without any third degree burns. He twirled around and called out his fire magic. Sephiroth grunted and leapt away before he could receive any damage. Reno grinned as his fists spewed out bright orange-red flames.

"Now… who did you say won?"

Sephiroth narrowed his eyes and slowly placed his hand on the Masamune. "I don't have time for this. I could have killed you long before, but I was having the time of my life. So now I-" He tried drawing out his sword but something kept pulling it back. He shifted around and found Cait Sith trying his best to pull back his hand. Cait growled and pulled harder.

"N-No way you're gonna cheat now!"

"Cheating, you say?" he lifted his sheath in the air as Cait struggled to hang tight. In one blow, he found himself crushed into the wall. Small sparks bolted out from its tiny body at that. Reeve's connection with the small toy was now in vain. However, Sephiroth wasn't going to fight some small cat toy right now. His only objective was to find a way to prevent AVALANCHE from returning back. He turned away and headed to where Elena went. No sooner that he took one step, he found himself surrounded by Reno's fire attack. He shifted his head and spotted Reno inside the trap as well.

"Not so fast, you! You gotta get passed me if you wanna head forward!"

Sephiroth turned to face the red head. "…you really want to die that badly? You are truly a worthy opponent."

"…likewise."

In unison, the two opponents leapt forward with their weapons drawn out for the final showdown.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Elena kneeled down next to the boy and tilted her head. "Why are you down here alone, little boy?"

The boy grunted and answered, "I'm not a 'little boy'! I'll have you know that I am well over my hundreds."

"Eeh! That doesn't make sense!"

Rude rubbed his forehead and sighed. "Care to explain what you are trying to say?"

"Very well," the boy turned to face a small black pedestal. "I was created to protect the Lifestream. You can say I practically control it. The sunrise and sunset, the sudden earthquakes… all is due to my emotions. But now, I cannot control it anymore. Someone else has taken over."

"Then, what's controlling it now?"

"An evil soul that had recently entered. All I know is that it is as strong as I am. And now, I feel a very cold chill running up and down my spine. A fight is going on and I'm afraid there is nothing I can do. Only time will tell."

Elena frowned. "It's probably those AVALANCHE…"

The boy turned to the woman. "AVALANCHE…"

"Yes, they were brought to the Lifestream, but they don't exactly belong there yet. If… you know what I mean."

"No, I know what you mean. They, too, are responsible for the change of the Lifestream. This is like what happened many years ago. The 'chosen ones' are to protect the civilians and everything else inside the Lifestream with their weapons."

"But then, how are we supposed to return them out here?" Rude asked.

"…my ancestors predicted that someday someone will have to form 'the path'."

"'The path'?"

"I am 'the path' that will help guide the 'chosen ones'. But, in order to do so, they must combine their powers of their weapons to help draw me there. That is why I wait here for that moment. I must gain enough power to help. However, there is a side affect. They lose bits of their memory each time they use their weapons. I'm afraid these new 'chosen ones' haven't figured that out yet"

"And their memories?"

The boy turned away. "I don't know. The last 'chosen ones' had lost their memories. I don't know about these now. Anything could happen."

Elena stepped up. "What now?"

"When the time comes and I become the path from this world to the Lifestream, you must prevent any other interference. If you don't, then no one will return back. The Lifestream will be in trouble. And this world could possibly… disappear."

* * *

Hojo observed his master plan in action. The back demon had knocked out two of AVALANCHE without any problems. The others were coming in for yet another close range assault. However, that was a bad call for them. Sparks of lightning struck out from the demon's fur, making the fighters paralyzed for a mere second. He narrowed his eyes as Nanaki had snuck behind and pinned down the demon easy. The creature tried its lightning attack again, but it didn't harm Nanaki at all. His metal armor should have caused severe damage, but it didn't. The mad scientist turned to his monitor as those random numbers continued appearing right after the other. He feared that those numbers might foil his plans. He clenched his fists and turned to the window again.

"Finish them off before something happens to you!"

"H-Hojo…" Gast slowly lifted his head. "You… won't get away with this."

Hojo laughed and turned to him. "Please, that's getting so old. Haven't you noticed that everything I had planned out carefully is indeed commencing? And there is nothing you can do about it."

'Oh… I did something already…'

Nanaki groaned and landed hard on his side. The black furred demon growled and pinned him down so he couldn't escape. There was no way Nanaki would ever harm Yuffie in any way. All seemed impossible, but he knew there was always a way. He drew out his sword and pushed the demon off with the handle. He jumped up and carefully landed high above the demon. It growled and jumped up, but was tackled down by Cid.

"Damnit! You could have killed it, you fur ball!"

Nanaki grunted at that. "Cid, listen! I know that Yuffie is still in there! I could feel it… please don't hurt her!"

"Oh! Now you tell us!"

The demon growled and hit Cid away with its tail. He collided against a huge boulder and fell forward. Vincent and Cloud stepped forward with their swords out in front. Nanaki jumped down in front of them and crouched down.

"What're we supposed to do?" Cloud asked. "Tifa, Barret, and Cid are out."

Nanaki narrowed his eyes. "You guys look after Aeris. I'll deal with Yuffie myself."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Vincent said.

"…I'm sure."

"If it gets out of hand, we'll cover you," at that, Cloud and Vincent headed straight to Aeris. Nanaki took out his sword and dropped it on the ground.

"Yuffie, your fight isn't with us… you are fighting against this demon! I know that you can win!"

Yuffie pounded her fists against the invisible walls and growled. "You stupid demon! Come over here so we can fight already!" Suddenly, the demon thrust toward its opponent. It's large head hit Nanaki and sent him flying into a boulder. The ninja growled and stomped her foot. "Not Nanaki! Fight ME!" she held her necklace tight and repeated, "FIGHT ME!"

Just then, her necklace started to glow a bright green color. Yuffie grinned victoriously and held it out. "You may have changed my demon form's heart, Hojo. But not my human heart!" The green light suddenly engulfed her, creating a vortex. The black demon roared out loud. Its sharp needle-like fur clashed together, creating bolts of lightning that randomly shot out. Everyone watched as the creature's form started to glow a green color. The demon tried all its might to resist such power, but surprisingly, it wasn't strong enough. In just a few moments, its beast form gradually changed into a human form; Yuffie's form. Her eyes still revealed the cross-like slits as she slowly peered over to where Nanaki was. Yuffie smirked then fell hard on her bare knees. Nanaki finally ran up to her and embraced the ninja tightly.

"Y-Yuffie!"

"…t-took you… look enough…"

At that, the other AVALANCHE members came out from hiding to meet up with Yuffie. Tifa was the first to greet her with one of her tight hugs. She sighed in relief, knowing that she was all right.

"Yuffie?" Aeris said in the back. The ninja slowly lifted her head from Tifa's shoulder and smiled big.

"A-Aeris! Is that really you?"

She nodded and gently stroked Yuffie's head. "Yes, it's Aeris. Please listen to me. I feel that something is about to happen to you."

"W-What?"

Barret grunted at that. "Hey, hey. Now that's not somethin' nice to say when greetin' a person!"

Nanaki stood up and clenched his fists. "No, she's right. I sense something just over this mountain. There's still something we must finish off."

Everyone narrowed their eyes and nodded. They still had to deal with a certain little mad scientist before they could start celebrating.

Hojo slammed his fist on the windowsill and turned around. He wasn't about to give up that easily. In all honestly, he truly never predicted that _this _would happen. He just assumed that everything would work out from the way he saw things. He flicked a few switches and pressed a few buttons on his monitor, bringing down the test tube Yuffie was in earlier. Apparently, he had missed something from his experimentations. He shifted to where Gast was and gave him a very dirty look. Gast seemed to be amused by this. He knew that Hojo would remove the human DNA he put into Yuffie before. But, it was obvious that he never exactly took _every_ DNA out. That was why Yuffie was able to change back to her other form easily. Hojo stepped up and lifted the scientist up by the collar.

"That smirk on your face will disappear once I strip your memories and feed it to my experiment."

"T-That's impossible!"

"Well now. I guess you haven't figured out my whole plan, hm?"

Gast grunted. "It's to destroy the whole Lifestream!"

Hojo laughed softly at that. "Why, yes. That is very true. But, you're missing out on one itsy bitsy little factor… the fact that I have been stealing the memories of women and children. All of that was so I could feed it to my successful experiment. Did you know that women and children's memories are the strongest out of all mankind? Seriously now. I had no idea…"

"HOJO! If you harm anyone else, I swear I'll put an end to you…"

"…not if I put an end to you first," Hojo dropped Gast to the floor as he swiveled around to his monitor. "I have placed a microchip inside the demons body, so that it will return inside this test tube. I admit that your little tricks have surprised me. But, I will not let that happen again."

"Aeris, please watch over Yuffie while we head to Hojo's hideout," Nanaki said as he placed Yuffie next to her.

She nodded. "O-Okay. But please be careful."

Yuffie mumbled. "N-Nanaki! I wanna come with you! I-I wanna kick some Hojo butt!"

Nanaki smiled and kneeled next to her. "I think you had a little _too_ much excitement for one day. Don't worry. We'll be back soon."

"…I-I feel funny…" her body started to fade away at that. She widened her eyes. "H-Hey… why am I…"

"Y-Yuffie!"

Aeris held Yuffie tightly. "T-This is what I have feared!"

"What's happening to her!"

"This is… Hojo's doings! It's like… what happened to that house! It just disappeared!"

Nanaki held Yuffie's hand. "Yuffie! No matter what, we'll put an end to this!"

The ninja smiled as her form was gradually disappearing. "Y-You better hurry… this time," at that, she was gone. Nanaki pounded his fist into a boulder and growled loudly. He returned into his beast form at that.

"Let's… go already."

Several black shadows suddenly appeared around AVALANCHE. Everyone stood up and drew out their weapons. In no time, the shadows lunged forward while everyone quickly dodged away from them. But, the black foes sunk into the ground and reappeared right as AVALANCHE landed. In one blow, they found themselves free falling at such a great height. Nanaki quickly retreated behind a boulder to catch his breath. He was still a little worn out from his previous battle with Yuffie. Vincent appeared above and landed right across from him.

"W-Where did _they_ come from?" Nanaki asked.

Vincent shook his head and leaned forward. "I'm not sure. But, I believe Hojo had something to do with this."

"We'll NEVER get to where Yuffie is now!" he got up to his feet and turned. "She could be in serious trouble now."

"Red, you should go to her."

"W-What? What about you guys?"

Vincent stood up and stepped on top of a boulder. "We'll take care of things here. The sooner we finish this mess, the sooner we can get out of here. Somehow."

Nanaki nodded. "Right. I'll try my best to take care of Hojo."

"Be careful," at that, the two friends leapt away from each other.

Inside Hojo's lab, Yuffie's demon form suddenly appeared inside the test tube. Its red eyes were filled with malice and its needle-like fur straightened out. Hojo pressed his hands against the tube and smiled nervously.

"Truly sorry for that. A certain little scientist wanted to foil my plans. But I got something even bigger. I have been collecting many memories from the civilians here and they hold some unbelievable power. Trust me. It will make you stronger than before."

The demon narrowed its eyes and replied with a very deep and sinister voice. "Good. I am tired of this human girl. She's giving me severe headaches."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure she's gone forever."

The demon's eyes shifted towards the door. It suddenly broke down, surprising the two. Nanaki growled loudly and stomped his paw hard on the ground.

"It's about time to finish you off, HOJO!"

* * *

A/N: End of chapter 14! Rrg! Pretty messy on the first half, but I got to use some of my ideas I thought of a veeeerryy long time ago for the middle half. Still kinda messy. (tilts head) Anyways! Get ready for the Final Showdown next chapter! Chapter Fifteen: Reveal Your True Eyes. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and please tell me how you thought of it! 


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